


You Can Run

by DarthRevanette



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Badass Rey, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Bounty Hunters, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Friends to Lovers, He kind of likes it, Hux Has No Chill, Hux is Not Nice, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Redemption, Mustafar, Mutual Pining, Protective Kylo Ren, Rey keeps taking Kylo's lightsaber, Rey needs a lightsaber, Slow Burn, Space Chase - Freeform, Yuuzhan Vong - Freeform, he's hunting, kylo has a potty mouth, sassy droid, she kicks ass with a staff anyway, slowburn romance, tatooine comfort food, there will be love in this hopeless place
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 02:29:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 55,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14368959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthRevanette/pseuds/DarthRevanette
Summary: A Mandalorian, a Yuuzhan Vong, and a Stormtrooper walk into a cantina. What do they all have in common? They want Kylo Ren’s head.Until Rey finds a way to repair her lightsaber and the Resistance rebuilds from the wreckage after the Battle of Crait, Rey has separated herself from the Resistance to keep them safe as Kylo Ren hunts her through the galaxy. They have unfinished business. Too bad that as soon as Kylo leaves the First Order he's a wanted man.





	1. Chapter One

** Chapter One **

Rey trudged through the jungle underbrush, swatting away limbs with her staff as they blocked her path. This planet was green, buzzing with insects and oppressively wet. For the first time in her life, Rey found herself thinking fondly of dry Jakku deserts.

As she broke through the densest part of the tree line, the town bordering the jungle came into view. It burned. Thick, gray-black plumes of smoke rose into the air in soft vertical clouds.

_He found me. Again._

Rey blinked and closed herself off from the screams she heard and felt in the Force.

_Focus._

There.

Parked in what served as the town center, a small squadron shuttle stood open, its contents already deployed to wreak havoc on the people.

It was her fault. The feeling rocked through Rey.

Trying to apply the few lessons Master Skywalker imparted to her on Ahch-To, Rey debated whether she would save more lives by venturing further into town and trying to fight off all the stormtroopers, or if leaving as quickly as possible would draw away the First Order and their violence.

Rey took off at a run for the shuttle as she weighed her options, and found that through her recent experiences, leaving was the best thing to do.

She ran with preternatural speed, bounding over obstacles. Her desert wraps flapped around her, and she used the Force to spread her awareness looking for him.

Was Kylo Ren here? Was he still hunting her?

Rey’s heart sank at the growing number of lives that were winking out of existence and joining the greater flow of the Cosmic Force. She pulled on the Force and used it to push her towards the still open ship door faster, escaped tendrils of hair whipping her cheeks.

Her check complete, she knew he wasn’t here on the planet. Rey completely unleashed her power and threw herself forward in a jump towards the open door. She stuck the end of her staff into the soft dirt right in front of the ship ramp and arched up through the air into the ship, wasting no precious seconds with her feet on the ground.

Two stunned stormtroopers looked up from the consoles they were monitoring.

“Hey!” one of them shouted, reaching for his blaster.

Rey knocked the blaster out of his hand with her staff, and, in another quick swing, rapped the staff against his helm. He dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

The other trooper fumbled for his comm. “INTR—ahhgHh!” Rey kicked the comm in the air and then smashed it with the end of her staff. The trooper froze in place with his hand still suspended in the air.

“Would you like to make a run for it?” she asked, holding her staff ready. “You can take your friend,” Rey added, toeing the downed trooper with her boot. Rey nodded, then let out an exasperated sigh when the trooper did nothing. “Better hurry!”

Suddenly, the stormtrooper bent and grabbed his fallen comrade under the shoulders, dragging him out of the ship. Rey scanned the ship for anyone else. Satisfied it was empty, she closed the hatch and went to the pilot’s chair. Out the transduristeel window pane at the front of the ship, she could see the troopers on the ground scrambling back to the ship, no doubt alerted to her presence.

They were too late. By now, Rey had really gotten the hang of piloting almost any ship she could find. It helped that the Force was always there, like a warm friend ready to show her the way.

She punched through the atmosphere with the ship as the stormtroopers converged to the spot where their ship had been. Dark space yawned open in front of her, the stars distant white pinpricks dotting the expanse. Nothing made her feel smaller than being alone in the dark vastness of the galaxy.

The feeling didn’t last long. Her fingers were already moving over the navicomputer controls, inputting coordinates for a jump to lightspeed, as she noted the Finalizer coming out of hyperspace to slice against the horizon.

If necessity had honed her skills as a pilot, it also taught her mastery over evading the First Order.

TIEs came flowing out of a hangar bay toward her, flying through space in a formation that reminded her of birds migrating and floating through the sky on all the different swirling air currents. It was beautiful and predatory. And deadly.

 _Focus!_ She commanded.

Coordinates calculated, Rey dropped to the ground and slid under the console on her back. She pulled a small tool out of her pocket and it whirred against the metal. A box dropped out, and she yanked, breaking all the wires that connected it to the main ship computer. Jumping back up, she punched the button to jump to hyperspace and flung herself down in the pilot seat as the first laser fire from the TIEs rocked past the ship.

The lights in the box on the floor beside her flickered off sullenly. That black box reported all back to the First Order. She didn’t need to make their job of tracking her any easier.

As the bright streaks of hyperspace surrounded her, Rey relaxed into the seat, heaving a sigh that released more than she knew she’d been holding onto. And then she was cold. The sweat and humidity of the planet still clung to her skin, but in the vacuum of space, the air was almost frigid. She shivered. Rey supposed that the stormtroopers had to be warm in their armor, so heating wasn’t much of a concern for them in these types of ships.

Rey shoved up from the seat and ignored the irate stab at the back of her mind. That wasn’t unfamiliar to her anymore and she learned to block him out. She’d shut him out almost completely. His presence still prowled at the back of her mind sometimes, waiting for any slip or break.

_Not today, Kylo Ren._

She snooped through all the storage on the small transport ship and found some rations as well as a black body armor suit that seemed like it would fit her. She wouldn’t wear the plastoid trooper armor but the bodysuit could be worn under her current clothes for extra warmth. There was no refresher on board, so she wiped herself down with some cleaning cloths and changed.

Rey pulled the beacon from her pocket and stared at it. She was in some strange purgatory of exile and loneliness. But she wasn’t truly alone. She had the Resistance now. Rey installed a comm unit in the beacon before departing from the Resistance. After all Finn went through to keep her from walking into trouble, it was a logical upgrade.

She pressed a tiny blue button hidden on the side of the beacon. “General Organa,” she said. It was audio only, as an extra safety precaution. The visuals that could be given away in a holo were a security risk to the Resistance.

A few moments of waiting and feeling every tired muscle and bone in her body and then, “Rey!” crackled through the tinny speaker.

“I’m sorry, General, but I was discovered again. The stormtroopers were in Helea when I returned from meditating in the jungle,” Rey said. She kept her face calm and composed, trying to imitate the demeanor of Leia. The adrenaline pumping through her veins from running changed into a slow simmering pool of anger in her stomach.

“Rey,” said General Organa again, this time much softer.

Rey shook her head, gritting her teeth. “He’s hunting me. And he’s getting faster at finding me every time I move. The whole reason I left the Resistance was so that people wouldn’t die because of me. Well, they are anyway. I can’t put any more people at risk.”

“We are growing. Hope is spreading across the galaxy and we are growing stronger every day. This will all be over soon and you can come back to us. We’re going to need you and what you’re doing now is important in making sure you’re ready when that time comes,” Leia reassured.

“With a trail of innocent bodies following me wherever I go.”

“I know." Rey could sense Leia's solemnness through the Force. "I think I know somewhere you could go. You may find more of what you need there to rebuild your lightsaber, but you would have to be careful, Rey. It's a dangerous place. You'd be hiding right under my son's nose."

That felt right. The Force hummed in agreement.

"Where?" Rey asked.

* * *

There was nothing of the boy he'd been, no matter what she said. Ben Solo no longer remained in him. It was too late for him to return to the light. Kylo Ren knew that — even if she refused to admit it.

Leather creaked as he squeezed his hand into a tight fist until his fingers ached to the bone to keep from smashing said fist into the data consoles in front of him.

Kylo Ren grew weary of these cat and mouse games. But he needed to find her. In the months since Snoke's death, Rey developed the ability to completely block him out of her mind and prevent any attempts of communication through their Force bond.

He couldn't put a name to the reason he had to pursue her, but having labeled her as the Jedi who murdered Supreme Leader Snoke had been reason enough to continue diverting First Order resources to hunt her down. There were strict no-kill orders — he wanted her alive.

And if she refused to talk to him — he would make her. He had unfinished business with her and he wasn't letting her close any more doors in his face.

She had felt it. Seen within. Had she seen the darkness clouding him with every breath he took? She could have gone back to calling him a monster and let go of Ben Solo. She'd given up on him — Kylo Ren who had sacrificed the light in his soul for the rush of power and emotion that a kill out of anger brought.

Twice now he'd struck out at his own blood in anger. Well, Luke had been in anger, though he hadn't struck the killing blow — _Kylo_ would have. With his father, the anger dulled to an ache that had to be eliminated in order for his training to be complete. Han Solo sacrificed himself for his son. And Kylo thanked him.

Still, patricide wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Snoke twisted that dark achievement into a failure.

Even though Snoke manipulated and lurked in his head for his whole life, it was a choice, wasn't it? He'd told Rey they needed to let old things die — Jedi and Sith — good versus evil.

Had he, somewhere along the way, made a choice and could no longer tell if he was good or evil? Did that matter? He knew what he wanted to accomplish was right. Perhaps the thought should have worried him, but he felt nothing. Darkness consumed all but one spark in his soul.

That tiny piece of light clung to him as if merely being there could save him.

He put his hand up towards the viewports looking out into space, heedless of whatever his underlings might think about his actions. Then he pushed hard at the Force, sending it snaking out to find Rey. Beneath his mask, he closed his eyes and felt the echo of her presence, bright across the galaxy.

 _Build your walls._ I'll blow them down.

Her control wavered as he tested her defenses, but not enough to get through.

_"You have to stop."_

Kylo almost didn't hear her whisper through his mind, but it lingered like smoke in the air and he caught the words to him.

 _"Stop trying to find me. You think I want to talk to you when you’re killing innocent people in your pursuit?"_ Her voice swirled through his mind and rushed through his veins with a lightning shock. The telepathic link between them thrummed to life. _"You're ripping my heart out. This isn’t the way."_

 _"Then come finish this."_ He meant to speak calmly and not scare her away, but the connection had surprised him. The words stumbled from his mind and out his mouth, abrupt and commanding.  

 _"No,"_ came her reply and then there was nothing. Any sense of her disappeared.

               

* * *

 

General Armitage Hux eyed Kylo Ren as he stood before the viewports with his arm outstretched, no doubt doing some dark force hoodoo. He hated that for no reason other than the circumstance of birth some men were granted special powers. That power did not fit into the carefully structured systems of the First Order, where power was awarded to those who deserved it. Like Hux himself.

He endured a childhood under his father, the crazed genius Brendol Hux, who shaped what generations of training for stormtroopers would be. Armitage trained children while a child himself. He'd borne the inhuman control of Snoke's reign. That creature he had respected. Snoke exuded control, power, and command. Nothing like that wild beast of a man, Kylo Ren.

Ren was intimidating enough with that stupid mask on, but without it, he was just a man no older than Hux himself. And now that man was their leader.

Hux hadn’t gotten this far to play second string after Snoke was gone. Eye always on the prize, Hux was destined to be the Supreme Leader. Hux knew it deep within himself. He was the one who would finally be able to bring order through swift justice to the galaxy. He wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted by a girl.

The new Supreme Leader poured the First Order's precious resources into hunting the girl, whole squadrons of troopers deployed to a random pattern of planets only to have the scavenger escape every single time — usually in one of their own ships. She didn't need to be captured. She needed to be killed — like any other Force user in the galaxy.

The lunatic at the window ignited his spitting lightsaber and brought it down on the control panels closest to him. Kylo Ren hacked and slashed at the machinery wildly, a guttural roar exploding out of the vocoder of his helm.

All the personnel on the Bridge looked to Hux, of course, because he was the one they expected to save them from the maniac in their midst.

"Hux," Kylo Ren barked, striding from his place at the head of the large room and towards the door panels leading out to the corridor. "With me."

Of course, he expected Hux to follow him like a dog. Waiting for Ren to pass, Hux followed the man out of the Bridge. Ren was silent as he navigated the vast hallways of the Finalizer until he found the room he wanted. An empty meeting room with a big holoprojector for maps.

"You will proceed to the Core worlds," said Kylo Ren.

Hux suppressed his glee. Ren had finally seen reason. This farcical space chase needed to end. It was time for the First Order to Conquer the galaxy, move beyond the fringes near wild space.

"You are to ensure their cooperation in joining the First Order and abiding by its rule. My rule.” Ren's masked face turned and stared through Hux, who felt the cool chill of Ren's power curling around him. "I will resummon the Knights of Ren from their missions to aid you and I will focus on capturing the murderer."

 _Ah, there it is._ Hux was to be left with a bunch of mildly force sensitive babysitters to keep his hands out of Ren's cookie jar. No matter; the Knights of Ren did not match Kylo's own power. The Knights may rein Hux in for a time during Kylo's absence, but it wouldn't take much to get rid of them. Not now that Supreme Leader Snoke was dead.

Hux pasted on his most acquiescing smile and wiped the thoughts of betrayal from his mind before they were detected by Kylo's disgusting mind probes. "As you command, Supreme Leader. And how long will you be away?"

_How long do I have to set my plans in motion without you around to interfere?_

Kylo's head tilted a few degrees to the left in a motion that was so subtly predatory it swept through Hux's flight or fight senses and raised his skin in horripilation.

"As long as it takes," Ren said, vocoder masking inflection. "I will prepare and leave within one cycle. The Knights will be here by then," he said in warning.

"Your Empire is safe with me," Hux said, choosing his words deliberately. He knew the dark warrior had a fetish for Darth Vader. Now that Ren named himself Supreme Leader he probably had grand illusions to be the next Vader — the next Palpatine.

Ha, as if he could ever rule with the might of the Empire's former leaders. Ren's petty ambitions of revenge were pathetic next to his own grand schemes.

"Shall we prepare for an execution upon your return?" Hux asked.

He regretted it immediately. Ren stretched his arm and clenched his fingers. Pressure coiled around Hux’s windpipe, and he wheezed trying to draw in air.

"You will receive further instructions when appropriate," growled Ren, then dropped his hold on Hux. The general sagged to the meeting table and rubbed his neck, glaring at Ren’s back as he left the room.

Every man had a weakness. For all of Kylo Ren's supernatural powers, he was still a mortal man, weak to the sins of the flesh. The Jedi girl had gotten under their dear Supreme Leader's skin, it appeared, and he wouldn't be satisfied until he had her. Hux prayed Ren to be stupid enough to bring her back to the First Order once he found her. Maybe, just maybe, Hux could have everything in place by then… a trap for both of them would be thrilling.                

Hux would wed the two to the eternity of the aether with a guillotine.

 


	2. Chapter Two

** Chapter Two **

Rey hovered above the planet in her stolen First Order ship. She checked the coordinates on the computer and looked back to the planet below her and back to the coordinates again. The sphere below swirled with dark clouds and rivulets of glowing red-orange lava coursed across the surface, visible from space even through the churning gray that obscured the majority of the planet.

The navicomputer told her the planet's name was Mustafar. The boiling energy radiating off of the planet reminded her of the turmoil inside of Kylo Ren. Rey rolled her eyes at her own sentimentality. Everything reminded her of him. It was impossible to keep him out of her mind even when he wasn't trying to breach her defenses. Even when he was the last person she wanted to think about.Following the coordinates that pointed her to a towering structure on the surface, she guided the ship closer to solid ground after she broke atmosphere. She came in slow, scanning the nearby area for life forms by stretching out her feelings in the Force.

There was nothing here.

The hellscape of spluttering lava surrounding the dark gray castle was frightening and everything about the exterior of the castle made her want to run away and find somewhere else to hide. _This place isn't for you_ , it suggested, as it loomed over her.

Rey landed the ship cautiously on a ledge hidden in a nearby cavern before gathering up all of her supplies and engaging the ship's cloaking device.

She was used to desert heat. This heat was altogether different from Jakku or the jungle planet she'd just been on. The heat emanating from this planet blistered and grasped, seeking to smother her with sulfuric fumes coming from the lava.

Rey used her staff to pick her way over the rocky terrain to the entrance of the castle. She looked up the towering structure, the stone peak reaching up into the sooty blackened clouds that obscured any sun from the sky.

A long bridge spanned the fast flowing river of lava that disappeared under the castle. Rey hurried across the stone bridge. She came up to the set of tall doors and looked for a handle or a panel that could be used to open it. Finding nothing, she frowned. Then she closed her eyes and used the Force to will the doors open. They hissed open, obeying her command.

Before entering, she checked again but still sensed no living beings within. Rey stepped inside to a cavernous chamber of stone and metal, all hard and unforgiving edges. It reminded her of the stark interiors of the Empire ships wrecked into the sands of her home.

Rey came to an abrupt halt a few steps in. The sides of the floor fell away and only a thin walkway, with faint white lights embedded along the edges, ran to the center of the cavern where there was a circular platform outlooking a triple peaked window showcasing the landscape beyond.

Phosphorescent red light came from the depths surrounding the raised platforms. Rey glanced down.

_More lava._

Rey thought there could be nothing worse than sand - which got absolutely everywhere - but she'd rather have endless sand than the constant threat of molten lava. Beyond the circular platform, the walkway continued to the other side of the cavern where there was a set of stairs leading to another door. This one had an opening extending horizontally across the surface.

Gripping her staff tightly with one hand and the strap of her bag with the other, Rey stepped out onto the walkway to cross all the way to the other set of doors.

What was this place that Leia had sent her to?

She felt Kylo Ren's presence all around her, lingering as if he'd spent a lot of time here. But there was also a much darker and haunting feeling that lurked in the shadows. Despite that, it welcomed her, like a sigh of relief swept through the isolated castle at her appearance.

She used the Force again on the horizontal doors as she approached and they opened, bathing her in a dim light. She blinked after all the gloomy darkness, squinting to see beyond the light.

_Was it a study?_ Books lined one wall much like the sacred Jedi texts she'd stolen from Ach-To. Her feet took her directly to the shelves and she ran her fingers along the spines, marveling at the number of them. Actual books — printed on paper. She turned away and went to the large stone desk in the middle of the room where a huge parchment book laid open with a stoppered ink pot and quill resting nearby.

_It's a journal._

She traced the inked words with her fingertips and read the Aurebesh flowing elegantly across the page. After all the digitally rendered words she'd read through datapads and the systems she salvaged from ships, the words on the page before her looked like art looping and dashing after each other on the paper.

They were notes on meditation technique. As she read further down the page, Rey knew that these words belonged to Kylo Ren.

_So this is his place._ Rey left the book with a one last lingering touch.

On the opposite side of the room, she found the source of light. It was a whole wall of shelves with suspended glowing blue cubes. There were just a few pulsing red pyramids interspersed amongst them. She heard whispers coming from the cubes and backed away.

"What are those?" she breathed, remembering the last time she'd responded to unearthly whispers at Maz's castle.

"Mi'lady, those are holocrons," came a very proper but mechanized voice.

Rey let out a shriek of a surprise and whirled around, jabbing out her staff. "Who are you?"

"Oh dear," said the humanoid droid, looking at the wooden end of Rey’s staff planted under his chin. A third class service droid, probably some kind of housekeeping droid, made of alternatingly matte and shiny black metals. He looked like a cross between Leia's C-3PO and some of the mangled Imperial droids she'd come across in the Empire's scattered wreckage on Jakku. "I am V-33D, a highly modified home service droid. You may call me Ved. May I inquire as to why you are currently trespassing in my master's fortress?"

"And who is your master?" Rey asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Why, Kylo Ren, of course," replied the indignant droid. "And your presence has already been reported. My master will be on his way." Ved lifted his chin haughtily.

"What?" Rey said. She knew she wouldn't be able to stay here indefinitely but she didn't expect to be chased off so soon either. Rey narrowed her eyes at Ved. "You can't keep me here, can you?"

"Why no, Miss… I'm afraid you did not tell me your name," Ved admonished. "I have not been equipped with weapons or any fighting protocols."

"I'm Rey. So you can't keep me here and you belong to Kylo Ren." She dropped her staff out of attack position and leaned against it, considering the droid. "And how long have you maintained this castle, Ved?"

"I have been here since 10BBY when I was constructed by my original Master." _His original Master?_ Rey would have to find out who that was, but not now, there wasn't time.

"You must have learned a lot in your time here from your Masters," said Rey, pushing off of her staff and advancing on Ved. "Why don't you escort me back to the entrance?"

"Yes, of course. We shall await Master Ren there," agreed the droid, as it began the not quite human walk to the door. Rey brought up her staff once his back was to her and hit a control box at the base of Ved's neck. "Oh no-" he let out a series of electronic beeps then the light went out of his eyes.

"Sorry about that," Rey said, crouching next to the fallen droid. "But you could be very useful to me. I promise to have you back to normal in no time."

Rey used some rope and an emergency blanket from her pack to fashion a stretcher which she pulled Ved onto. She held onto the rope and used the Force to levitate the droid resting on the blanket from the ground and pulled him along behind her as she escaped the castle to her waiting ship.

 

\---

What was Rey doing on Mustafar?

Kylo Ren's shuttle was already on its way through hyperspace on a route he knew well. It was only a few hours jump from the Finalizer to his grandfather's castle.

Then it wasn't long before his boots hit stone and he entered the castle. He felt for Rey but had known she was already gone. He ripped his mask off and threw it against the wall with a roar. She kept slipping through his fingers like sand.

Kylo reached for the thick rope of their bond and yanked on it as hard as he could, pulling her to him. He felt her walls come rushing towards him and expected to hit the full force of their resistance but instead they faltered and he felt her surging towards him instead.

_Rey,"_ he growled as he walked towards the study. _Where is Ved? "Where are you?"_   He shouted for the droid and received no response. _"And what did you do with my droid?"_ he demanded.

" _He's with me,"_ said Rey, materializing in front of him fully for the first time since the Battle of Crait. His eyes raked her greedily, taking in everything - from her mussed buns to her interesting outfit comprising of a stormtrooper jumpsuit and her usual light desert garb.  _"And he's perfectly fine, just resting right now."_ Then she glared at him. _"Like I would tell you where I am."_ The look she gave him shot right through him, making his stomach churn. It was similar the one she gave him in the forest on Starkiller base but a little different now. Sadder. _"Just so you can send more troopers after me, killing more innocents in your quest to find me? I'll pass."_

_"It’s in your power to end this quickly,”_ Kylo said. _"Tell me where you are and we can finish this."_

_"No,"_ she said.

_"Fine! Then go ahead and keep living this way,"_ he snarled. When he received no response, he said, _"Surely you see the futility in running. It's a big galaxy, but you can't truly hide from me, Rey. Not with the bond we have. Come to me or more people will die,"_ Kylo said savagely, trying to goad her into giving him the information he wanted.

Rey just shook her head, her brown eyes glittering with unshed tears and then she faded away.

Kylo let out another frustrated roar and stalked the library checking to see if the little scavenger had stolen anything else from him. Nothing else was disturbed as far as he could tell within the castle - but he felt deeply disturbed.

She’d awoken something inside of him when she touched his hand. Something he didn't quite understand yet but was compelling him to keep searching for her. To confront her again. He wasn't even sure what he would do when he found her. Did he want forgiveness? To eliminate her? To convert her?

"Master," buzzed his comm. Kylo jerked at the sound coming from the unit embedded in the forearm of his left glove.

"Ved?" Kylo said.

"Yes, Master Kylo," said Ved. "I do apologize for not being in residence to welcome you. I have been abducted by the intruder, Miss Rey. She disabled my power but has since restored it and I was able to utilize my internal comms again, so she can't hear me. That aside, she appears to be quite a nice young lady."

"Yes," Kylo said, cutting the babbling droid off. "Where is she taking you?"

"According to the coordinates in the ship's computer, she is taking us to the planet Batuu, Master."

Kylo swore. _That blasted planet full of criminals and lowlives?_   It was just about the furthest you could go without crossing into wild space and was no place for a naive desert girl from Jakku.

 

\---

 

Feeling weary and a little hopeless, Snap Wexley settled back in the pilot's chair, feet up on the edge of the console with his hands folded behind his head as he stared out at the bright lights of hyperspace streaking around the ship. Having just scouted the Archanis Sector for a potential Resistance base, he and his co-pilot Jessika Pava were on their way to the Outer Rim, not having had much luck.

Jess threw herself into the seat next to him. "How much longer? A few minutes?" she said hopefully. "This is the last place right, then we're going to try to find them?"

Snap's mouth twisted into a frown. It had been months since they'd been in contact with anyone from the Resistance. And even though they'd stuck to their orders from Leia and were now scouting out a new base, they hadn't heard from them since the Battle of Crait. They'd caught bits and pieces of news through the holonet; Rey, the Jedi girl, had killed Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order was busy hunting her down. If she'd survived, then at least some of the Resistance probably did as well, right?

Snap reminded himself that General Organa would want him to hold on to hope.

"Yeah, should be just a couple of more minutes," Snap said. "Not sure what we're going to find out here, but hopefully it's better than Tatooine — that planet was giving me major Jakku flashback heebie jeebies." Snap allowed a moment to think about Mister Bones, remembering the droid who'd been his best friend and companion as a child, despite his deadly nature. The droid was destroyed protecting him and his family during the Battle of Jakku.

Jess just smiled at him and then the ship rocked gently as it came out of hyperspace. "We made it!" Jess said, hopping up from her seat then halting, her mouth falling open. "Snap. What is that?"

Looking outside through the viewport, they'd dropped into the middle of what looked like a full armada of ships or where they asteroids? Snap goggled at the sheer number of them. They looked like huge hunks of rock and mineral floating through space, but lights twinkled on the surface and smaller asteroids flew out of the larger ones with the precision of a piloted vehicles. There were so many of these rock ships in varying sizes.

Snap sat up straight and his fingers flew over the navigational computer in front of him. "Quick," Snap shouted to Jess. "Turn the ship around. We've got to jump."

Jess was frozen, staring at the ships. They didn't look friendly.

"Jess!"

She jumped then did as requested. Back in the co-pilot's chair she took the controls and calmly turned the ship around. Alarms began sounding, "Incoming enemy fire," along with the shrill whine of the siren and flashing red lights.

"Shields!" said Snap.

"I know," Jess said, hand already reaching.

Dark orange liquid fire rocketed around them and Snap finished the calculations and the engines thundered to life, spiriting them away.

"What were those?" Jess asked again, staring blankly out the window. "There were so many of them. And those weren't like any laser cannons I've seen before."

"We have to find the Resistance. Whoever they were, they weren't looking to make friends. I don't know if even the First Order's fleet is that big," said Snap, trying to go through what he'd seen to count how many ships it could have been. "There had to be at least a hundred and some of them were massive. Bigger than a Star Destroyer."

               

\---

 

"General. You have a message on the bridge from one Shimrra Jamaane." The lieutenant looked away and added hesitantly, "He said his title was Supreme Overlord."

Hux chuckled darkly. _These brutes had delusions of grandeur, indeed._

Making his way to the bridge, he connected to the holo comm. The grotesque figure of the creature named Shimrra Jamaane appeared before him. He had gray skin and hard sloping forehead and deep-set yellow eyes seethed red.

"General Hux," rumbled the Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord. "We have arrived in your galaxy proper and have already been greeted by your pests. We must meet in person now and dispense with this blasphemy of holo transmissions. Or are you too cowardly to greet your allies?" Shimrra taunted, leaning forward.

Hux had to remind himself the creature wasn't actually aboard the Supremacy. In fact, the Yuuzhan Vong fleet should be across the galaxy from where Hux and the majority of the First Order fleet travelled to the galaxy's core.

"In due time," Hux said, inclining his head to the projection. "We shall discuss strategies and your people's … compensation."

"We will not wait long," the Supreme Overlord warned. "We have come to avenge our brethren's death at the hands of that filthy Jedi human." The eye sacks on the Yuuzhan Vong's face undulated with rage. "She shall die a most painful and satisfying death." Shimrra's voice echoed across the bridge in a terrible grating laugh.

"We shall require some of your best warriors to first capture the dark force user, Kylo Ren," said Hux. "They must both be eliminated in order for our supreme rule over this galaxy. Our people will soon have eyes everywhere hunting for him – all you must do is wait for word and we will send you the exact coordinates. Your people should have no trouble capturing him, I assume?" Hux asked with raised eyebrows.

Shimrra's eyes glowed hotly. "You doubt my warriors? They are not weak to the Force like your kind. He will not defeat them."

Hux nodded. "Until then," he said, ending the transmission.

"Sir," said the same lieutenant. "The Knights of Ren have arrived. Which quarters are we assigning them this time?"

Hux grinned. "Ah, have them meet me on level D23-5 in the conference room. We will debrief. And lieutenant, assemble the 701st to meet me there after the Knights have settled in."

The lieutenant's eyes widened and his throat bobbed. "The—the death troopers, sir?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle in kids! Things are about to get crazy. 
> 
> I'd love to hear from you guys. It's been a while since I've actually posted any fanfiction and would love your input. I've also been out of the game so long I have no beta-reader so please don't judge me too harshly on my typos. I've got to type fast when I actually have time to write. ;)


	3. Chapter Three

 

** Chapter Three **

Ved warned Rey approximately every half hour of the types of beings that resided on Batuu and drifted through the trading outpost. “Degenerates and scoundrels!” the indignant droid said, pacing behind the pilot’s seat as Rey landed the ship.

Taking a cue from others trying to hide, Rey fashioned the charcoal-colored wrap she normally wore over her tunic into a hooded shawl, covering her face and wrapping around her shoulders for security. She'd also taken her hair down out of her customary buns. If anyone bothered to look closely under her hood, they might recognize her, but this would obscure her enough. The First Order frequently seized the holonet’s emergency broadcast frequency to transmit wanted notices for the Killer Jedi. The great thing about this place was that no one was looking at anyone else.

This was a place to be unseen. Still, Rey darted quick looks from under lowered lashes at everyone they passed, Kylo’s household droid following with slow, dragging footsteps. He certainly wasn’t doing anything to help keep them from being detected.

In a galaxy with no First Order, where Rey grew up with a real family, she could see herself as a career traveler, exploring all the planets the galaxy had to offer, making notes and drawings cataloging all of its wonders. In a galaxy with no Kylo Ren hot on her tail, Rey would stop and take a moment to enjoy Batuu. The planet dazzled with sunshine but at just the right temperature – not scorching and dry, not damp and smothering. Green leafed trees scattered amongst the colorful rounded roof buildings rustled in the light breeze, providing extra shade. She compared every planet to Jakku and felt like the girl in the children’s tale, _Goldilekku._ Batuu was just right.

"Come on," she said, turning back to Ved once she realized he was no longer right behind her. "Keep up."

Ved stumbled around one of the jagged earthen spires that knifed out of the ground amidst the outpost buildings. They were smaller versions of the rugged outcropping that looked more like mountains on the edge of the city.

"Miss Rey-”

"It’s just Rey.”

"Rey," Ved amended, sounding very put out. "May I inquire as to what you are doing? Where are you taking me?"

"Come closer, Ved. I won't shout it for the world to hear." Rey squinted back at the droid as he scurried to catch up to her. When he was next to her, Rey whispered, "We need a new ship — so we're going to a cantina to see what kind of ships are out there. Don't want to get caught sneaking around too long at the docking bays," Rey added under her breath.

"Oh, you can buy ships at a cantina?" asked Ved, sidestepping a mangy Bothan passed out on the street corner.

"We're going to try a trade or something." Rey looked away from Ved.

"Or something?" Ved said, cocking his head toward her. He wasn't alive for her to feel anything in the Force from him, but he practically vibrated with distress.

Rey ignored Ved, catching a melodic croon escaping out to the street from a half propped open door. The waving sign posted near the door had no Aurebesh naming it cantina but had the universal symbol of two clinking glasses painted crudely on the rusted metal.

“There,” she said, beckoning Ved to follow.

Rey adjusted her hood ensuring the breeze hadn’t interfered with its ability to hide her features. “Keep quiet and follow me,” she warned the droid. She half expected him to protest but he only looked back at her silently.

When she turned to go through the door, Rey heard Ved say at a much lower volume than normal, “Quite bossy.”

Rey halted fully intending on reprimanding the droid but stopped. She rather liked being called bossy, she decided, and let it go. Having to be dependent only on herself for survival for so long didn’t make it easy for her to relinquish control of a situation and if that meant she came off as bossy, the situation probably called for it.

Her eye on a back booth with a view of the door, Rey wound her way through the tables and stumbling drunk patrons. Reaching her target, Rey slid across the sticky seat and motioned for Ved to join her.

Listening in on the conversations of the patrons around them revealed more about the nature of the ships docked at the outpost than one might think. Rey listened, focused through the Force, and found at least two tables that would probably have an illegally modified light freighter that would be perfect for her purposes.

A ship with a little more zip and firepower and the ability to be inconspicuous had her mind spinning to find a way to keep such a ship long term.

The smuggler who owned the ship was deep in conversation with the Sullustan and Zabrak males sitting across from him. The din of noise in the cantina buzzed interrupted with hoots of laughter and the trill of the Pa’lowick singer, but Rey could pick out every word of conversation at the table and knew they were leaving from docking bay B12 at dawn. Just enough time at port for them to get in a full night of carousing.

"—Extremely dangerous dark force user, Kylo Ren. If apprehended or located, contact the First Order immediately for reward.” Rey’s mind snagged on the words uttered from the pallid human male on the holonet screens located throughout the cantina. “He is wanted dead or alive.” The announcement cut through the noise of the cantina like a vibroblade through Bantha butter straight into her stomach.

_Wanted? Kylo Ren?_

No one else in the cantina seemed particularly surprised or engrossed in the holocast, but fear crept from the floor up Rey’s legs, turning them into cold cement.

“What is wrong?” Ved asked, metal head tilted in concern. “Do you require refreshments? I will call the service droid.”

“N-no,” Rey choked out. “Look.” She pointed to the holocast and Ved went still.

Rey blinked a few times. For the first time, she was not alone in her worry for Kylo Ren. Granted, it wasn’t another living being sharing in her worry, but she’d take what she could get.

But how? How could this have happened? The holocast hadn’t named Kylo as Snoke’s murderer, so it might not be that. Rey wracked her brain trying to think of a reason that the First Order would have turned on their new Supreme Leader so quickly.

_What have you done, Ben?_ Rey asked, the words sinking heavily out into the Force.

_“Rey!”_ Kylo’s voice howled across their bond raggedly. It was primal and urgent, forcing Rey up to her feet and out of the booth before she even realized what she was doing. Had he heard her?

_“Kylo?”_ Her voice sounded small in comparison to the call he’d just broadcast.

A sharp sense of frustration came through the bond along with the tang of blood and the acrid stench of cauterized flesh. Heart racing with every new impression washing over her as she lifted the walls she’d kept erected for months as punishment; Rey stopped and started towards the door unsure what to do with all the information Kylo transmitted. She could feel his rage throbbing through their connection like an open wound.

_“I need your help,”_ Kylo said, as Rey felt like she was going to drown in the chaos of thoughts, images, and feelings he radiated. Every word came halting and gritted like they’d barely made it through his teeth even though she only heard it mentally. It made her stop and glance around the cantina to see if anyone else had heard, it sounded so much like he was right by her ear. The skin on her arms rose at the thought.

_“You’re asking for my help?”_ Rey asked, trying not to let herself get swept up in his state of mind. This was the first time he asked for her help and she wasn't sure what to do. Didn't she promise she would help him in the turbolift?

He was silent; the only sensations she could make out were furious and blazed with blind aggression.

_“Please.”_ It felt as if she’d fallen straight onto her back and the wind had been knocked out of her. She struggled to breathe unsure if the sensation was from Kylo’s plea or something he was experiencing.

One thing was certain. Kylo Ren was in trouble.

“But where is he?” Rey moaned aloud.

“Are you, perhaps, speaking of Master Ren?” Ved inquired. “I spoke to him 23 minutes ago when he notified me of his arrival on Batuu.”

If it was possible to strangle a droid, Rey would have strangled Ved right then and there. “What do you mean when you spoke to him 23 minutes ago?”

“I communicate with my Master through my internal comm. It is a part of my surveillance protocol.”

_He’s here. On Batuu._ Rey floundered between wanting to run and immediately searching the streets for Kylo. He sounded so distressed. She’d never heard that level of agony in his voice.

He’d never asked for her help.

\---

Kylo Ren’s cape whipped at his legs as he stalked the streets of Batuu. He was hot on her trail – he could sense her presence in the Force. He caught traces of her winding through the alleyways, between the almost unnatural rock formations sprouting out of the ground.

In his haste, Kylo knocked into someone else. He merely stared down at the Ithorian until he scurried off down the street. The Ithorian’s baleful eyes didn’t dare meet the severe gaze of Kylo’s mask again.

Kylo was so close to finding her. He opened himself up to everything around him, feeling the flow of the Force. The last transmission coordinates Ved sent through his internal comms system had placed them somewhere in this square.

So focused on finding Rey in the crowded outpost, Kylo didn’t sense the disturbance in the Force until it was too late. Batuu hummed with a general undertone of unsavoriness and ill intent but the Force flared into the deadly focus of a hunter ambushing his prey.

Before Kylo could locate where the intent was coming from, a net flew down over him and stretched with a fleshy elasticity. Kylo growled in disgust as the thing — not net — weighed him down. He tried to Force push the strange webbed being off because the more he struggled the pull it off with his bare hands, the more it tightened around him.

But his Force push did nothing. The creature writhing around him was a void in the Force. Kylo couldn’t see or influence it like most sentient beings.

Kylo huffed under his helm and moved his hand the few inches needed to pull his lightsaber off his belt and ignite it. The blade hissed and sliced through an inch of the creature’s netted body and it recoiled, charred flesh shrinking away from the weapon.

The disgusting pulsating creature squeezed its body, now wrapped around Kylo from almost head to toe, and Kylo found he could no longer move his arm, much less his wrist or hand to do further damage to the beast. His pulse finally quickened and he felt sweat slick against the leather resting against his forehead on the inside of his mask.

_What was this thing?_

_And did no one see what was happening?_

Kylo’s eyes flashed around the square which was conspicuously less crowded than it had been a mere moment ago. A turbulent blast sounded just overhead and Kylo jerked up to see the distinctive helmet of a Mandalorian and that Mandalorian had a jetpack they were using to ease their jump from the rooftop of the building directly in front of Kylo Ren.

_A Mandalorian bounty hunter? Was this monstrous creature in league with a bounty hunter?_

“Kylo Ren, you were much easier to capture than your reputation would suggest,” the bounty hunter laughed as they landed in front of Kylo.     

Still frozen in place by the netted creature, Kylo simply stared at the bounty hunter. Why a bounty hunter dared capture the Supreme Leader of the First Order was beyond him. It was ludicrous. The foolish bounty hunter had a death wish.

The bounty hunter circled Kylo with a gait that marked her female. The bounty hunter couldn’t keep her smug sense of satisfaction from rolling in thick waves Kylo was sure that even someone without Force sensitivity would be able to feel. “The mighty Supreme Leader brought down by a net,” she taunted. “And here I thought the Jedi Killer would be a little more of a challenge.” The bounty hunter sighed and pulled her blaster out of its holster on her hip.

She stepped back in front of Kylo and held the blaster to his forehead. “Now the question is, should I bring you in dead or alive?”

Rage pulsed in Kylo’s gut as Hux’s sneering face flashed in his mind. The ginger bastard wouldn’t have dared put a bounty on the Supreme Leader’s head. Not with the threat of Knights of Ren prowling the Finalizer watching Hux’s every move. The rage twisted into doubt and he tried balling the whole thing up and throwing it into a dark corner. He couldn’t try to unravel the mystery of the bounty and defend himself at the same time while this creature constricted his body further.

Kylo gritted his teeth and pushed hard with the Force at the bounty hunter, knocking her against the side of the building directly behind her. The stone chipped and fell in pieces and dust around her but the net still held tight around Kylo, keeping him from moving. The creature fully resisted any further attempts at using the Force as a means of escape.

The bounty hunter picked herself out of the rubble slowly and shook her head dazedly. “Not cool, Kylo Ren,” she said. She retrieved her blaster from where it had fallen and flicked it twice in signal and six other similarly dressed bounty hunters stepped out from where they’d been lurking, all with their blasters trained on Kylo.

Kylo made the full rounds of every swear word he’d learned on the many unsanctioned trips he took with his father and a ship full of a “reformed” smugglers and reprobates. Like in any number of the bad situations in his memory where those words were first used, they didn’t actually help the situation.

The netted creature compressed its body around Kylo’s head, pain driving any immediate thought from his head for a moment. He breathed hard and the air inside his mask grew humid with the heat of his breath and perspiration from his face. He was used to pain. He could endure this.

He wouldn’t be bested by a net creature and a Mandalorian bounty squad on a backwater planet like Batuu.

_Rey._

The thought of her spiked through him like a bolt of pure lightning but just as quickly twisted in his stomach. Would she even come to help him if he called? Could he even put himself in the position to ask for her help? The creature squeezed again and he didn’t waste any more time thinking about it as the bounty hunters closed in on him.

_“Rey!”_ Kylo screamed out through their bond.

Rey flickered instantly into his consciousness through the squeeze the netted creature had on his head. _“Kylo?”_ she said warily.

The bounty hunter stopped in front of him and dusted off her shoulders and cracked her neck.

_“I need your help,”_ Kylo said, then he pushed on the Force again, ready to send the wretched bounty hunter flying back on her ass into a building. But the netted creature vibrated and the waves scrambled his brain, collapsing any concentration of the Force he tried to muster.

The bounty hunter cackled when Kylo jerked at the pain. “Doesn’t seem like you’re enjoying our new pet — what a shame. It was gifted to us by our new friends, but I don’t suppose you’ve met yet, have you? Our new friends seem immune to your power. This blorash jelly mesh was bred specifically to incapacitate Force users like you.”

Crossing her arms, the bounty hunter rocked back on her heels radiating superiority that threatened to choke Kylo more than the pain the vibrations of the so-called blorash jelly mesh sliced through his brain.

_“You’re asking for my help?”_ Rey’s voice grew faint as his control over his own mind kept slipping.

Kylo forced the word out. _“Please.”_

Then the bounty hunter kicked her boot out straight into Kylo’s chest and sent him crashing down onto the pavement on his back, unable to break his own fall with his arms. He wheezed trying to catch his breath and black dots danced before his eyes along with the ringing chime of the alarm that monitored his vitals within his helm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please know I will be borrowing heavily from the EU books but will also be taking a lot of artistic license if some of these seems a little out there. But look up blorash jelly. It's a thing, y'all. 
> 
> Kylo and Rey are THIS CLOSE to being back together. So close.


	4. Chapter Four

  **Chapter Four**

A celestial goddess flew down from the domed roof with a feral roar that belied the elegance of her legs bending and curving as she twisted through the air. Kylo’s vision swam as he tracked her movements. Before her feet touched the ground, her staff spun to knock out two of the Mandalorian goons.

_She came._

Rey paused momentarily once her boots hit the earth and met Kylo’s eyes. Her loose brown hair escaped the hood she wore and fanned out wildly around her face. The sun shining through the strands turned her hair into a tawny halo. _Angel. Goddess._ Rey was righteous and angry and beautiful. _Too good for you._

Her eyes blazed as she tore them away from his and kicked her staff back up into a spin. The efficiency with which she took down the remaining Mandalorian bounty hunters astounded Kylo. Only the leader who currently had him under blaster point still stood. He knew Rey fought well. She’d bested him at Starkiller. They’d fought back to back and side by side against Snoke’s Praetorian Guard, but this was the first time he watched her fight.

The blorash net strangled Kylo's whole body and clenched around his helm so hard the alarms blared in Kylo’s ear one more time before the mask cracked and fell from his face. The pieces caught in the net, the jagged edges of the broken metal stabbing his face. His skin stung anywhere the fleshy creature made contact with Kylo's own skin. He let out a strangled yelp at the combined pressure on his skull and burning on his face.

Rey pointed her staff at the bounty hunter. “Release him.”

“Aren’t you handy with a stick?” said the bounty hunter as she circled Kylo to stand behind him, blaster trained to the back of his head.

“Release him,” Rey repeated with a jab of her staff at the bounty hunter.

“You know,” said the bounty hunter thoughtfully, tilting her head to one side. “I don’t think I even know how to release the creature. The mighty Kylo Ren will just have to suffer the indignity of being trapped until we deliver him.”

_Cheeky fool_ , Kylo thought, and felt an answering push of annoyance across the bond from Rey.

Rey’s nostrils flared as she took deep breaths, struggling to regain control after the quick fight with the secondary bounty hunters. Rey hadn’t rebuilt her mental barriers against Kylo after he called out to her so Kylo read her intent to rush the bounty hunter before she could execute.

_“No,”_ Kylo said through their bond. _“She could shoot me if you aren’t fast enough.”_

The creature didn’t like it any time Kylo utilized the Force and punished him by sending wave after wave of excruciating vibrations into his head. Nausea surged through Kylo sending bitter bile up the back of his throat. He clenched his teeth and swallowed hard. He kept reminding himself he’d endured worse under Snoke’s hand. Just a few months without the weight of his sadistic master’s hand in his mind had been enough to dull the memory of the painful lessons. Despite this, he sensed Rey’s scoff at his uncertainty in her skill.

“You will release him to me,” Rey commanded with the weight of the Force.

“Ah, I’ve never been spineless, dear. I’m afraid those Jedi tricks won’t work on me. Why don’t you say goodbye to your boyfriend? We’ve got to be going now.”

Rey glared at the bounty hunter. “I really did want to do this the nice way.”

“Yeah, well, the nice guys never win.” The bounty hunter tapped on a fleshy part of the creature netting Kylo with the toe of her boot twice and it grew warmer and more elastic. The burning of the creature’s skin against his lessened slightly, but it continued to throb, obstructing his thoughts. The bounty hunter hooked a serpentine clip to part of the creature’s netting and began to drag Kylo Ren through the street. Kylo bared his teeth at the bounty hunter for subjecting him to the indignity. He imagined cutting off her sarcastic jeers with his lightsaber through her throat.

Ignoring Kylo’s earlier warning and spurred by his spiraling thoughts, Rey catapulted into an arc through the air after rooting the end of her staff into the ground and crashed feet first into the bounty hunter. The bounty hunter tumbled to the ground and lost her grip on her blaster.

“My lightsaber,” Kylo said through gritted teeth. Rey rushed over to Kylo while the bounty hunter struggled to stand up, stumbling back onto her knees a few times. “Don’t touch the creature.”

Rey slid her fingers carefully between the creature’s webbing and pulled the cross-hatched cylinder of Kylo’s lightsaber hilt from his belt. It was only at that moment that Kylo realized she’d been fighting this entire time with only her staff.

_“What happened to my lightsaber?”_ Kylo asked abruptly through the bond, earning him a vicious squeeze from the creature. _“And where’s my droid?”_

Shooting him a dark look, Rey eased Kylo’s lightsaber the rest of the way out of the netting. She answered him out loud. “The lightsaber broke – split in two after…” He knew what she was talking about. “I haven’t had one since.”

_She_ _’d been stealing First Order ships and defeating whole squadrons of troopers with only her staff? For months?_ Kylo tried to focus through the rush of new information and painful vibrations shooting through his head. “Use the lightsaber to cut the creature off of me,” said Kylo. “You can’t use the Force against it.”

“What the hell is this thing?” Rey said in disgust as the creature did a little undulating leer at her.

“Blorash jelly mesh. Save the mystery for later and get this fragging thing off of me.” Kylo could barely get the words out.

Rey ignited his lightsaber and Kylo suddenly doubted if this was a good idea.  There wasn’t much room, if any, between the creature and himself. Odds were he was about to get a bunch of lovely new scars. _More pain._

“No, please! Do not harm my master. I must insist you cease this violence at once,” Ved said, stepping as quickly as his gears would allow, finally having caught up with Rey.

“I’m trying to help him,” said Rey, sparing the worried droid a glance. “Maybe I should just use the little vent port sides?” she said, looking dubiously at the crackling lightsaber then back to Kylo. When Kylo just glowered at her from beneath the wriggling creature, Rey frowned and squared her shoulders. She held Kylo’s lightsaber at an angle and used the blade from one of the side vent ports to carefully singe off one strand of the creature’s netting at a time. Each time the tip of the lightsaber would either graze his clothes or sear skin. Ved hovered over Rey like a nervous mother wringing her hands, sending small grating noises through the air. The sound plus the pulsating from the creature made Kylo’s skin crawl.

Pieces of the creature began falling off of Kylo but would still cling to his cloak or some other surface nearby. When enough of the creature was cut away, Kylo tried rolling away from the pieces Rey already severed, but those little blobs were sticky and made it feel like he was moving through syrup.

“Keep cutting them smaller,” Kylo urged, ripping pieces of the creature off and flinging them as far away as he could after Rey freed his left hand.

“Not so fast, sister,” said the bounty hunter pressing the cold metal of her blaster against the back of Rey’s head. Gone was the teasing tone of the bounty hunter’s voice. It was hard fired steel now as she pointed her blaster.

Rey’s eyes widened with alarm before narrowing on the bounty hunter. She had let herself be distracted by Kylo -- unable to keep from feeling his agony. Her concentration focused on quickly chopping the creature kept her from keeping tabs on the bounty hunter. Rey was an excellent fighter but still hadn’t learned to master concentration of the Force while fighting. No matter. That was something Kylo could help her with — if she ever let him.

“Hey,” the bounty hunter said in sudden recognition. “Aren’t you that Jedi girl?” Then her Mandalorian helmet canted oddly to the left. Through the haze of pain pounding through Kylo’s head, he registered the sound of a discharged blaster only after the bounty hunter slumped to the ground.

Immediately jumping to her feet, Rey reignited Kylo’s lightsaber with a _snap-hiss_ in her hand and his heart thudded sluggishly in his chest at the sight of her.

“We come in peace!” called out a female voice from the top of a junk shop across the square.

_Hard to come in peace with a smoking blaster._ Kylo studied the rooftops warily his hand itching for his weapon.

Two heads popped up over the edge of the roof, one still wearing his Resistance pilot helmet. Why anyone would dare wear something that shouted their affiliation with the terrorist group was beyond Kylo.

Then again, he hadn’t taken any pains to disguise himself when arriving at the outpost and look how that had turned out.

Rey sagged with relief and then fell back to the ground beside Kylo to cut off the remaining pieces of the creature which seemed to be shriveling up on itself. Rey stirred the cut off pieces into the dirt with the tip of Kylo’s lightsaber, burning every individual piece until they stopped moving.

“Ved, collect a piece and store it as a sample,” Kylo commanded.

“I’m going to pretend you said please,” Ved said, not bothering to adjust his volume.

Their rescuers from the roof approached from across the square and people began to fill the streets again as if sensing the danger was over.

Rey cut her eyes over to Kylo sharply as he picked himself up off of the ground, shaking out the dirt from his cloak. The pieces of his mask lay scattered in jagged fragments. Another of his masks in pieces. Maybe it was time to retire it permanently.

She didn’t say anything through the bond but he heard her loud and clear anyway. She saved him but things hadn’t changed. Rey held his lightsaber in her hand, now off. “If I give this back to you, will you kill them?”

Kylo paused for a moment, considering. “No.”

“I don’t need a lightsaber to fight you,” Rey said, slapping the weapon into his hand.

Kylo was in no shape to fight her at the moment, but having his lightsaber back in his hand made him feel whole and a lot more ready than he had a moment ago. They would deal with these Resistance traitors and thieves then he would have the confrontation he wanted.

“Rey?” said the male Resistance pilot once they were within speaking distance, his copilot on his heels. The pilot stuck out his hand and helped Rey off the ground when she nodded. “Snap Wexley,” he introduced himself. “And this is Jessika Pava.”

Nodding, Rey said, “I’m sorry I didn’t remember your names, but I do remember seeing you on D’Qar before.” Rey and the two Resistance pilots glared at Kylo and he glowered back. He owed them nothing.

Almost nothing. They saved Rey’s life, which meant they probably saved his in the process.

Jessika shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We need to leave. Now. I don’t know why you were helping Kylo Ren,” she added, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “But you’re both pretty recognizable right now.”  Jessika and Snap looked at the passed out bounty hunters on the street around them.

“We have to contact the Resistance,” Snap said. “We’ve been out of communication with them since Crait.”

Rey twisted her mouth thoughtfully and Kylo could feel her mulling him over. _What to do with Kylo Ren_ , she thought. As if he were a stray Lothcat. The pain receding from his mind, Kylo’s mood darkened at her train of thought. The few people who'd reentered the square gave the glowering man in black a wide berth.

“You would have to be willing to bring all of us with you,” Rey stated, tipping her staff towards Kylo and Ved. The droid stood behind Kylo and closed a mechanized drawer in his torso to store the piece of the creature he’d extracted from the charred ruins on the ground.

Jessika looked like she wanted to argue, but Snap waved his hand. “We’ll deal with that later. Come on.” The look Jessika shot Snap would have her fit right in with the First Order officers and the withering stares the frequently used on their subordinates.

_“I’m not going with them,”_ Kylo said to Rey through their force bond.

Rey turned to look at him. _“I just saved you. The First Order has a death warrant on your head. Where exactly are you going to go?”_ Everything in Kylo rebelled against her words but they rang true. _“Your name and picture are being blasted through the holonet as we speak.”_

Kylo said nothing but lifted his chin. That was all he’d give her. He followed Rey and the pilots, glowering at Rey's back. Ved followed him as they passed people in the street who kept their eyes firmly planted down.

Life went on the galaxy.

 

\---

“No, they didn’t look like beasts,” Jessika corrected Snap once they were on the small Resistance ship. It was sleeker and newer than anything Rey had flown on in a while and much nicer than anything else she’d seen in the Resistance hangar in her brief time on D’Qar. “They looked like giant seeds or comets. Some had legs?” Jess’s eyebrows knitted together as she stared off into space as if trying to recall the exact mental picture of what she had seen.

“There were hundreds of them,” Snap said. “As soon as they noticed us, they started firing. I’ve never seen any vessels like that in my life. It’s like they were alive. Our computers didn’t register them at all as anything other than a potential asteroid field. And their weapons,” Snap palmed his face, the bristle from his stubble making an audible scratch against the skin. “It was like a magma laser.”

“It was magma,” said Jess. “It attached to the ship through our defense shields and almost burned a hole through the hull before we jumped to hyperspace. I’d just finished repairing it when I heard the commotion in the square.”

For the first time since the rescue, Kylo spoke, causing Snap and Jess to jump. “The ships are organic. Their weapons are organic,” he stated. _Is that what the thing was that had been hurting him? A weapon?_ Rey wondered. She’d almost thought it was some kind of pet that was defending its master. _“Blorash jelly mesh,”_ Kylo supplied through their mental link.

_“Stay out of my mind. If you have something to say, say it.”_

Out loud, Rey said, “Kylo said the thing that attacked him is called a blorash jelly mesh. Have you ever heard of that?” She tried going through the mental index of creatures she studied in the programs she found aboard the wrecked Imperial ships on Jakku but couldn’t remember ever coming across the name before.

“No, never,” Snap said shaking his head. “I need to contact General Organa and give a report. If these are hostiles… we may have something scarier on our hands than the First Order.” Then he blanched, looking up at Kylo Ren’s hulking presence at the small table in the tiny mess of the ship. Rey sensed Snap’s fear as if the adrenaline of escape from the mysterious beings had just run out and he’d realized there was another foe in his midst. Curiously, he didn’t react as if he knew Kylo was General Organa’s son – Ben Solo.

Something soft inside Rey sighed as the name whispered across her mind like something lost. Her skin tingled as she becomes aware of it. Life hadn’t given her a chance to have many soft moments and when they came, it always took her by surprise.

" _Most people don’t know,”_ Kylo said through their force bond. _“Ben Solo is dead as far as the galaxy is concerned.”_

“You’re not going to kill us, are you?” Jess asked Kylo, shrinking back against her seat.

Kylo clenched his teeth with closed lips, making his jaw flex. A frisson tickled along the back of Rey’s neck at the movement and she found herself waiting with her breath held for his answer.

“No,” Kylo said. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. That’s not what I’m here for.”

“Then what are you here for?” Rey asked, the softness clearing from her mind and her expression.

Kylo looked at her, waiting, but didn’t say anything. Rey felt like he was willing her to make a mental leap, like he’d be disappointed if she couldn’t figure it out on her own. That only served to make her anxious and annoyed though she tried not to show it.

“Um,” Jess interrupted like she’d rather do anything else in the galaxy. “We can leave if we could just borrow your beacon to contact General Organa?” she asked Rey. Jess eyed the door like it was her ticket out of hell.

Rey didn't take her eyes off of Kylo but pulled the beacon out of her pocket and slid it across the table to Jess. Once both Jess and Snap scuttled back to the cockpit, Rey said, “What did you do?”

Kylo’s face remained impassive and it nettled Rey, knowing she’d seen a range of passionate emotions from him. It infuriated her when he took the high road and remained calm when she could barely keep a lid on her own emotions. But she’d been operating in flight or fight mode almost every day since she left Jakku, especially once she’d decided to leave Kylo on the floor of Snoke’s throne room. He hadn’t given her a moment of peace since and now he sat in front of her silently, giving nothing away.

It wasn’t hard to believe his father had been an ace Sabacc player with the way Kylo could remain inscrutable.

But he had called her asking for help.

He owed her an explanation whether he wanted to give it or not.

“What’s changed? Why are you chasing me yourself now? Why are you wanted by the First Order?” Rey’s questions tumbled out, unable to hold them in any longer, even though he had to know what she wanted to ask.

Kylo shrugged and Rey’s eyelid twitched as she grasped the edge of the table, metal cutting into her palm.

Kylo Ren, who had pursued her through the galaxy for months, was indifferent and silent now that he finally had her?

“Tell me,” Rey demanded.

His face barely changed, but Rey could see the deep weariness settle over him. His already scarred face had fresh cuts from the creature and deep purple circles curved under his eyes. “You’re not taking me to the Resistance – not even after I tell you.”

They were currently on route to another busy trading port and could go their own way, apart from Jess and Snap easily. Kylo didn’t seem hell-bent on destruction but it still didn’t seem like a good idea to take him directly there to cause trouble.

The Force hummed in agreement to reassure her that time would only aid her ability to help Kylo. Introducing the Resistance, which may want reparations for Kylo’s war crimes, wouldn’t help him.

Surely that’s what all of this meant. If he’d finally come for her himself — that he’d needed her — that the First Order declared him a traitor. He must have realized she was right, finally.

Rey’s heart sank. Would Luke have been able to live if Kylo had just come to this conclusion earlier?

“I’m not here to be saved,” Kylo said darkly.

“I said to stay out of my mind.”

“I don’t need to read your mind to know what that look means. I’ve seen it before.” He glanced away. How many times had his own family tried to save him? Rey felt resentful of them for the first time — these people she’d held up like heroes. However many times they’d tried, it hadn’t been enough.

His eyes shot to hers and they looked like Ben’s eyes — the eyes of the man she’d felt seen and heard by in the hut on Ahch-To — as if he had felt seen and heard too. Rey could almost forgive him for his continued trespassing in her mind for that look alone. Ben was in there even if Kylo didn’t want him to be.

She walled herself off from him. Rey shifted and bit her lip, wondering if she’d made the right decision in the throne room. Maybe if she’d said yes… Maybe if she had just taken his hand she could have really changed him.

No, that didn’t feel right. It wouldn’t have been right.

_No matter how much you want the guy, you couldn't_ _have him at the expense of your friends who you could feel blinking out of existence through the Force._ No, selfishness was not a luxury that Rey couldn’t afford anymore. It had been the only luxury of being on her own on Jakku – no one else to keep alive and worry about. Just parents to yearn for.

And what she was doing with Kylo now – what she wanted to do – to leave on her own with him? That was selfish.

“General Hux has been waiting to stage a coup,” Kylo said, running his hand through his hair. Some of the hair stuck in places on his face where it’d dried to the skin with blood. He yanked and smoothed all the strands back. Rey’s hands itched to comb the disheveled hair. She wondered what it would look like styled in her signature her buns, and had to roll her lips down under her teeth and bite down hard to keep from smiling.

_Don_ _’t smile when he’s telling you about being overthrown. That will not go over well._

Kylo eyed her suspiciously before continuing.  “That’s all I know. I recalled the Knights of Ren to keep him in check while I was gone but that seems to have gone wrong,” he growled. “That weasely rat-faced bastard.” He banged his fist on the table.

“Uh,” Snap poked his head into the room. “Just wanted to say we’re dropping out of hyperspace in about 15 minutes. And Rey, General Organa would like to speak with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting them as fast as I write them. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review. And thank you to everyone who has left kudos so far. :D


	5. Chapter Five

** Chapter Five **

_“And Rey, General Organa would like to speak with you.”_

Kylo Ren’s shoulders stiffened at the mention of his mother again. Rey felt the turmoil the name stirred up in him without needing to see his face. The mention of the woman churned emotions in him that made Rey almost gasp aloud with the crushing sadness that blanketed her. She tried to meet Kylo’s eyes but he kept his gaze away from hers and clamped down on the flow of their bond to stifle the flow of feelings.

He knew she was still alive, that much Rey could make out because he was never surprised to hear her name.

Rey shook her head but got up from the table. In a low voice, she said, “I’d like to speak with her alone.” She cut her eyes back to Kylo who slouched at the table with his head bent over his fisted hands. “Will you two be okay with him?”

Jess rolled her shoulders and drifted a little closer to Snap as she joined them in the doorway. “He did say he wouldn’t kill us and even though he’s an evil bastard, I believe him.”

 _Evil?_ Rey looked back to Kylo and couldn’t see it. She knew his struggle and pain. She’d felt it all even if she didn’t understand it. He wasn’t evil but he was another disappointment. Another heartbreak.

Snap’s hand hovered over his blaster. “He has his lightsaber, doesn’t he?”

A loud sigh interrupted their hushed conversation and Kylo left the table in a swirl of his black cloak. The fabric snapped as he whipped it behind him to keep from catching in the closing door on the opposite side of the room.

“We’ll give him some alone time,” Snap said. His hand moved away from the blaster. “His droid is plugged in back there.”

Rey nodded to the two pilots and Jess returned the beacon to her. “Snap and I will prep for landing. You can talk here.”

After they left, Rey set the beacon on the table in front of her and popped it open to fiddle with the circuitry inside. One of the live wires brushed her fingertip and she jumped at the shock then sucked on the burn. She pressed two of the wires together then pulled out the small multi-tool she always kept in her pocket. She manipulated the grooves and slides on the side of the tool until the mini-soldering iron popped out. She fused the two wires with it. Inspecting her handiwork, Rey fitted the top of the beacon onto the backing and pressed the power button.

A small unsteady azure light projected above the center of the beacon and flickered until General Leia Organa’s face appeared. Rey sagged against the sticky polyvinyl bench seat on the backside of the kitchenette table at the sight of her. She was just as Rey remembered. Leia’s face was lined with grief but also radiated a sense of warm and determination that soothed something inside of Rey.

Leia lifted an eyebrow at Rey’s appearance through the hologram. “Now that you have my son I do suppose its safe to communicate this way.”

Rey smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “He could listen at the door or come in at any moment so it didn’t seem like it mattered.” Rey’s expression turned pained. “The First Order is hunting him now too. He said he knew General Hux was treasonous but had taken measures to protect his position after he left.”

“That didn’t take.” The normally composed General’s forehead wrinkled causing the worry lines to deepen. Leia held her breath before releasing it in a rush and running a hand over her braided hair. Rey immediately saw Kylo doing the same thing only minutes ago in her mind’s eye.  She wasn’t used to seeing Leia like this but she couldn’t deny the sorrow rippling out into the Force from the woman. Leia was conflicted about him just like Rey.

Neither of them called him by name. _Kylo Ren. Supreme Leader. Ben Solo_. None felt right on Rey’s tongue at the moment.

Leia’s mouth depressed into a frown, the corners of her lips pulled down. If Rey had seen it on anyone else, she would have thought it a caricature of a sad person, but on Leia, she could see the woman struggling to keep tears from springing to her eyes. “I don’t suppose this has made him want to renounce the First Order?”

“He hasn’t said so.”

“No, he wouldn’t want to give it up so easily.” Leia straightened and attempted to curve her lips back into a smile, falling short. “I can’t see him right now, Rey. I’m not ready. And you can’t bring him back here. The Resistance isn’t ready to deal with him either.”

Rey flinched. She hadn’t even considered bringing him back to the Resistance. What would they even do with him now? He’d come after them hard on Crait and that wasn’t something that the remaining members of the rebel group were willing to let go of easily. Friends and family were lost due to his actions. They would want to kill him. He would be a war criminal.

“You can see how poorly that would go,” Leia said, reading Rey through the hologram. “And beyond that, we don’t have any way to contain him… or keep him safe from anyone wanting to take justice into their own hands.”

Rey presumed that since Kylo was being pursued by the First Order and was no longer crafting ways to destroy the remainder of the Resistance, that she would be free to return to her new friends. Free to see Finn. To actually make connections with Poe and Rose that there hadn’t been time for in the aftermath. Rey ground her teeth, anger furling like a heavy weight in her stomach.

Not only had Kylo Ren disappointed her by not living up to being Ben Solo, he had taken away the only people that meant anything to her. He deprived her of scavenging the family she’d never had but was finally in reach.

“What am I supposed to do with him?” Rey asked.

Leia pursed her lips. “He could be useful.” Rey regarded the older woman in disbelief. “He did build his own lightsaber,” Leia said. Rey couldn’t miss the note of pride that colored the woman’s response. “He’s the only living person we know of in the galaxy that could help you rebuild your lightsaber. And he did train as a Jedi for years with Luke.” She didn’t add the rest. Then the image of Leia flickered on the table and she turned her head to listen to someone approaching her. Rey could only faintly hear what the other person was saying but strained all the same to try to make out as much as she could.

When Leia returned her attention to Rey, the frown lines were back. “The First Order has released an updated message through the holonet. You and my son are both in danger. Rey,” Leia was almost pleading with her and that made everything feel much worse. “You both need to hide-out somewhere. Let him help you fix your lightsaber. Let him teach you. You said that he told you that you needed a teacher. He _wants_ to teach you.” Leia’s gaze became unfocused. “He was always an intelligent boy, eager to share his knowledge.”

“He doesn’t want to join us,” Rey said plainly, trying not to be affected by the other woman’s melancholy but she couldn’t help but be sucked in. They’d both been disappointed in _him_. “I already tried.”

“Well, his circumstances have changed now, haven’t they?” Leia’s tone was whip-sharp and stung a little. Rey vaguely recognized it as the tone a mother might use on a misbehaving child. “If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll go with you.”

“And where exactly am I going?” Rey questioned. “He’s wanted. I’m wanted.”

Leia shrugged her shoulders. “That’s up to you. The Resistance needs to continue to regroup and do some recon on what Snap and Jess discovered in the Outer Rim. Keep your ears open and your eyes peeled for any more information about these strange vessels. I’ve never heard of anything like it. We could have something much bigger on our hands than this conflict with the First Order.”

“I’ll try but I don’t think this is going to work.”

“Do or do not, there is no try,” Leia said wryly and the words washed over Rey with a resounding echo in the Force.

 

—

 

The door swooshed open to reveal Kylo sitting on one of the lightweight durasteel storage trunks scattered in the cargo-hold of the Resistance ship. He was bent over with his head rested in his hands but his muscles coiled in readiness as she entered the room behind him.

Rey twisted her hands but caught herself in the act and quickly moved to rub her sweaty palms against the rough material of her pants.

"Your mo — " Rey clapped a hand over her mouth. "General Organa — " That wasn’t better. Hostility bubbled through the air around them making it thick and hard to breathe. Rey heaved a sigh and tried again. "I have something to show you."

She came to stand directly in front of him but he still wouldn't look up at her. Fine. He could be that way if he wanted but she was still showing it to him. She hit play on the file General Organa sent her through the beacon and the blue beam of light shot out and displayed the visage of General Armitage Hux.

"Kylo Ren and the Jedi Rey are wanted by the First Order on acts of murder and treason. They acted together, playing both sides of the conflict and used it as an opportunity to sow disorder throughout the galaxy. The dangerous force users murdered the Supreme Leader so the traitor Kylo Ren could usurp the Supreme Leader's throne." Image captures obtained from when Rey was aboard the Supremacy flashed on the holo-projection and Kylo finally looked up, eyes catching on the image.

It was Rey with Kylo cropped out of the shot. She could tell the moment it was taken —  right before they got on the elevator. Rey looked so hopeful, eyes round and gleaming even with the cuffs on her wrists as Kylo led her to his Master.

Kylo couldn't look away as the message continued to play, now flashing to images of Kylo in rapid succession, masked and unmasked. "If you see either of these insidious force users, exercise extreme caution and notify the First Order. They will be captured — dead or alive." The glitter of delight in Hux's eyes was visible even through the grainy holo. The fanatical man went on to declare himself the new leader of the Supreme Order and promised to bring peace and justice to the galaxy by whatever means necessary.

The holo shut off abruptly and Rey tucked the beacon back into her pocket. She didn't want to speak first but Kylo wouldn't either. Now he stared just to the left of her with a faraway look in his eyes. She waited anyway.

"They're dead."

"Who?" Rey asked, shifting on her feet in front of him.

"The Knights of Ren. He killed them all. I can't detect them in the Force," said Kylo as if he were chewing on the words.

Rey wanted to blurt out everything that Leia told her and order him to help her but she couldn't. Her skin crawled thinking about admitting she needed help with her lightsaber or training in the Force. She didn't want him to have been right about Luke — but Master Skywalker hadn't taught her much of practical use. Everything had been a philosophical discussion of the Force, of the Jedi and what they had been. Rey did need a teacher. Having been in Kylo's mind and learned what she did on Starkiller base had just been a taste of what he could do.

Of course, Kylo could sense her indecision.

"What?" he barked. "What did she tell you to do? Bring me to the Resistance so I can rot in prison?" He glared at her. "That's not going to happen."

Rey returned his glare with equal heat. "No, she didn't. She doesn't want you anywhere near them," she spat.

Kylo recoiled before he could censor himself and the color in his face leeched out slowly. That look stabbed Rey in the gut. She knew her words were harsh but she couldn't control the need to lash out at him. To make him hurt like he'd hurt her. He was keeping her from _Leia_. From _Finn_ — the only true friend she felt she had in the whole galaxy. The only person who'd ever come back for her. Rey hardened herself to Kylo's display of emotion. Maybe not intentionally but he'd already taken advantage of her softness once when she came to him on the Supremacy and she wasn't eager to make that mistake again.

She wanted to punish him. "You have nowhere to go. The First Order wants you dead and the Resistance doesn't even want to deal with you."

"I gave everything to the First Order!" Kylo erupted standing from the trunk. He loomed over Rey now, broad chest heaving. "Those filthy traitors wouldn't know loyalty if it hit them in the face."

"You're one to talk," Rey scoffed deliberately casting the image of the dead, halved Snoke in the throne room across their bond.

He glared at her and bit out. "I _was_ being loyal."

Rey flushed and looked away feeling her stomach dance in a way she fiercely wished it wouldn't. She caught herself rising up on her toes and leaning toward him. _No._ She told herself sternly. _What do you think you're doing?_ But it was so much harder to deny the way she responded to him when they were in actual physical proximity. Her mouth was dry and way too wet at the same time. She didn't know what to do with those feelings — the quickening pace of her heart — the lightness that filled her head and made her want to sway right into him.

Kylo looked at her askance at the change in demeanor and who knows reactions what she revealed through their connection.

Rey cleared her throat and shuffled back a few paces so he wasn't so large in front of her, taking up every part of her vision. But he stepped forward crowding her until her back bumped against the hard metal wall. She tilted her head just enough that she could look up at him. She leveled him with her best defiant stare and willed any soft-hearted feminine emotions to disappear.

"So what does she want you to do with me, Rey?" he whispered. His words plucked at her core and filled her with a warmth she only half-understood. She would not let him pull her there. He'd ruined that by choosing the First Order over her. 

"To teach me," she answered. "Help me rebuild my lightsaber. You said I needed a teacher." The last bit shot out like an accusation daring him to deny her.

Kylo crossed his arms over his chest and stepped away from her, the muscles of his forearms straining against the dark material of his sleeves. Rey wouldn't let her eyes linger. She wouldn't even look. Not even a little peek.

 _Damn_.

Her eyes shot back to his.

"Why would I do that?" he asked, oblivious. "You've rejected my offers multiple times." Bitterness trickled like blistering battery acid along the thread of their connection.

"You're my only hope," Rey said, relinquishing some of her hardness. Trying to remember that Leia had wanted her to do this. To get Kylo to teach her. They weren't supposed to be tearing into each other. "It's not like you can take back the First Order on your own," she added.

"You want to help me take back the First Order?" he said slowly. "I doubt that."

"We do have a mutual enemy. I would at least support removing General Hux from power."

"Even if you had to kill him?"

"He wants me dead. If it comes to it, I will. He would make a much better prisoner though, don't you think?"

Kylo appraised her then stuck out a gloved hand. Rey looked down at it and didn't move, paralyzed by the memory of the last time he'd held out his hand to her. He retracted his hand and pulled at the leather fingertips of his glove until his hand was bared to her. He reached out again between them. "If I help you, you'll help me?" he said.

Rey reluctantly put her hand in his and shook, trying desperately to ignore the shock of his skin against hers as it fired a trail of sensation all the way up her arm.

For the first time, Kylo Ren smiled at her. It wasn't like a grin she'd get from Finn — open, happy and full of warmth. Kylo's was a twisted saturnine smile. He dragged his hand out of hers allowing his bare skin to graze against hers like flint against stone lighting a fire deep in the feminine part of herself she avoided at all costs.

The part of her that always led to trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, I know I was posting faster but I needed to take quick break and make sure my outline was still holding up to what I'd written so far and flesh out a bunch of the middle. 
> 
> As I have said before, I will be borrowing from the EU heavily in regards to the Yuuzhan Vong but I will very much be using them to suit my purposes so they may not end up exactly the same as in the New Jedi Order books. I mean, they had a ton of books to write and explore the Yuuzhan Vong and I am going to attempt putting them into a single fic -- so we'll see how that works out! 
> 
> Let me know what you guys think! We're almost out of Act One and into Act Two where all of the fun stuff happens. Thanks for reading my mind-movies! ;)


	6. Chapter Six

** Chapter Six **

"No." Kylo Ren halted when he stepped out of the Resistance freighter. He turned to walk right back in but Rey caught him by the bicep and stopped him with an unexpectedly strong grip. He glared down at her arm and she dropped it.

There was no way in hell he was tooling around the galaxy with Rey in that hunk of panna cake shaped garbage his father called a ship. He couldn't begin to imagine what his _moth_ \-- General Organa -- was thinking sending it for them.

Chewbacca stood near the open hatch with his bowcaster drawn but hanging loosely in his grip. More threat than promise. The landing platform they'd chosen on this remote planet was empty save for them.

The old Wookie warbled a tentative greeting as Rey stepped out of the ship behind him followed by Snap and Jess.

_I can't do this._

A phantom ache swept through his gut where he'd been shot by his honorary uncle's bowcaster. A wound Kylo barely survived after Chewbacca wailed in rage as Han Solo's life was ended by his own son. Crippling tendrils of darkness crept from his stomach and curled around his heart - squeezing.

His chest tightened.

It was hard to breathe.

Kylo grasped at one of the pneumatic durasteel poles that held open the hatch and sagged against it. His legs turned to swamp mud. His clammy hands slipped on the sweat-slicked metal and he collapsed to his knees.

Chewbacca ululated caustic but tinged with concern. Kylo felt the sound rocket through his body. The familiar Shyriiwook dredging him through every childhood memory he'd tried to forget.

His father's face materialized in from of him. The last moments of Han Solo's life replayed. His hand outstretched to caress his son's face, even after Kylo stabbed him through the heart.

"Kylo?" He heard Rey's hesitant voice but it was muddled like he was stuck under water and she was calling to him from the shore.

"What's wrong with him?" Snap muttered.

"Just step back," Rey commanded. She shooed the pilots over to Chewie.

Rey knelt down next to Kylo and it wasn't until she rested her hand on his shoulder that he realized he was shaking.

_I can't do this_.

She must have known what this would do to him. He cursed his mother for sending Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon of _all_ things. Kylo's eyes burned and he clenched his teeth, willing the specter of his father to disappear.

"GET OUT!" he shouted.

"Kylo!" Rey sounded shaken and she gripped his shoulder tight. She looked over at the others. "Can you please leave?"

He couldn't hear their responses. It was as if thick Sullustan fiber balls blocked his ears. He was in a dream. A nightmare.

Then the malefic presence he thought was gone forever grazed the back of his mind and whispered words of torment. _They'll never forgive you now, Ben Solo._

"Get out!" he yelled again. He clutched at the top of his skull as if he could physically remove the haunting wraith of his master from his mind.

But they were just ghosts.

_This isn't real_.

He forced the mantra through every fiber of his being.

Then he felt the arms around him.  


Kylo opened his eyes still shaking, but now with Rey's arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind. She sensed the change in him and let go quickly. But it had been enough. The heat of her body seared against his back and dissipated the cold dread and panic.

Rey moved to face him and looked carefully into his eyes. Her eyelashes were spiked and damp. "Was that…?" She couldn't even say his name.

Kylo jerked in realization and pushed her away from him roughly enough with the Force that she stumbled but didn't fall. "You felt that?" he rasped.

Pity pooled dark in her eyes and her compassion wrapped like golden merlie yarn around the chain of their bond. Like she was trying to insulate him against the anguish.

"Don't look at me like that," he growled and cinched their connection to block her out of his mind. It had been so long since she'd allowed the connection he kept forgetting to put his guards up against her.

She opened her mouth but closed it and continued to regard him. Having closed her out of his mind he couldn't easily perceive anything from her but he couldn't handle that pity. He didn't want anyone's pity. The choices made - they were his to live with.

"Don't look at me like you can save me," he snarled. "I offered ugly death to all my enemies and did it with a song of vengeance in my heart." He grabbed the duristeel pole and pulled himself up, trembling as adrenaline continued to pump through his veins. "You think you know me because you've seen my mind -- but you _don't_. Snoke couldn't know my mind and neither can you."

"You can push me away," Rey said, folding her arms like a hug around herself. "But I felt that just now. You seem to want to act like killing Han was nothing to you, but it's not. It's ripping you up inside. _I felt it_."

Kylo wished he had his mask more than anything. He wanted to hide behind it. He was too exposed without it. And he still had to see whatever other fresh hell his mother sent along with the Falcon.

"Are you okay now? Can we continue?" Rey asked her expression flat. Her soft underbelly retreated into its shell. He pretended there was no loss in it.

"Yes," he said between his teeth, neck corded.

Kylo Ren followed Rey to the hatch of the Falcon trying not to look directly at it. Maybe he could pretend it was something else. Maybe the rosy nostalgia and scars wouldn't touch him.

_No. I'll never be free from this pain._

  


\---

  


Rey glanced at Kylo. He was like a cold hard stone beside her. She looked up. _A cold, hard boulder,_ she amended. How could he stand there so calmly after the miasma of torture he'd endured at his own doing? And the dark presence that felt like only one other she'd ever known?

She was weakened by it and it wasn't her pain.

Seeing Chewie was a surprise -- a good one for her but now she bit her lip and wondered if there were any other surprise visitors on the Falcon.

"Wait here for a minute?" she said to Kylo when they reached the doorway.

He nodded.

Rey stared as she approached the holotable inside the ship. "It's so clean," she marveled.

Chewie answered her with appreciation.

"Yes, you did fix up the place. What kind of upgrades?" Rey asked then did a double take as she spotted the other two people sitting at the table. "Finn? Poe? What are you doing here?"

They both laughed and rushed up from the table to give her a hug.

"Someone's got to give Chewie a ride home," Poe said lightly, but Rey felt the frisson of unease that clung to him. So they knew Kylo Ren was with her.

Her suspicions were confirmed by Finn constantly looking over her shoulder, no doubt waiting for Kylo be on her heels. "And we were dying to see you. It's been ages." Finn released her and looked her over. "Not staying out of trouble I see." He, like Poe, was trying to keep things casual.

Did they not trust her? "So you both know Kylo Ren is with us," she said bluntly.

They both deflated and she tried not to be amused. Did they know how in sync they were? It was kind of cute. "Yes," Finn said first. "We know."

Poe scratched the top of his head. "Kylo Ren, huh? I mean, he's the baddest of the baddies, right? And now he's…."

Rey raised her eyebrows.

Finn shifted his weight from leg to leg. "You're working with him? The First Order wants him. Are we supposed to believe he's _good_ now?" The whole time he spoke, Finn kept his eyes trained on the doorway.

"Leia didn't brief you on anything?"

"None of the juicy details," said Poe. "Just the gist of the situation. But it still doesn't feel right. Rey, that man dug into my head and ripped out what he needed."

Rey sucked in a breath. "And I've been in his head. I know what's there and we can trust him right now."

"For now?"

"He's going to help me," Rey said then stopped as she heard Kylo's heavy booted footfalls on the metal grating of the entry ramp.

"Enough chit-chat," said Kylo as he swept into the small space. His eyes were slightly unfocused but he didn't appear to be agitated anymore.

Both Finn and Poe froze in fight or flight, both clearly itching for it to be fight. Hands always went right for the blaster at the threat of danger.

And Kylo was tall, dark danger in the dim light. Rey blinked trying not to let her eyes linger on the nascent shadow of stubble on his chin and jaw. It was just the lingering sympathy she felt for him. Even if she didn't want to feel for him, she couldn't help it. Not when he suffered so cripplingly from his crime of patricide. She didn't forgive him for it but she also knew he didn't forgive himself either.

Kylo shifted and focused on Finn and Poe. "Traitor. Pilot."

Finn eyed the lightsaber dangling from its clip on Kylo's belt. Kylo flicked a piece of lint from his cloak near the scratched metal of his weapon making Finn and Poe jump.

"Stop," Rey said rolling her eyes. "He's not hurting anyone. He's promised and I believe him." She pointed at Finn and Poe. "I know both of you have reasons to hate him and what he did to both of you was horrible." She paused to give Kylo a sharp look.

"He almost killed me," Finn said in a low tone.

"You want me to finish the job?" Kylo taunted.

"I said stop!" Rey's brows lowered in fury. She had to hold out an arm to stop Poe who had drifted forward to Kylo, spoiling to retaliate. "Finn, Poe, I am so happy to see you." She made Finn meet her eyes. "I missed you so much. And I have wanted nothing more to be with you guys but what's inside me… it's important. I know I have power but I still don't know how to use all of it. He's going to help me with that. That doesn't mean we're friends. That doesn't mean he's going to hurt me. You know that Snoke linked us through the Force and that hasn't gone away even after his death. Whether I or anyone else likes it, Kylo and I are connected this way." She willed Finn to understand. "I feel his pain and he feels mine. Things aren't so black and white. They aren't just good and evil. I know he's done monstrous things."

Kylo tensed behind her. But she ignored him and continued.

"I know it's asking a lot for you to trust me that this is going to be okay. That it isn't going to blow up in all our faces. But I can feel his intentions. I have seen the real shape of him solid and clear and this is the right path." Rey couldn't keep tears from welling in the corner of her eyes. This was so hard. She didn't know how they would ever let go. Why would any of them let go of the things Kylo Ren had made them suffer?

The revelation shook her. Was that why Ben hadn't been willing to go with her on the Supremacy? He already knew the futility of it?

A childhood as a desert scavenger abandoned by her parents left her with a deep well of forgiveness. She'd been willing to forgive parents who left her on a barely habitable planet alone as a small child. Each tick on the wall was a mark against them for her to hold close and angry and then let go. She desired their return more than she wanted to hold on to the hurt and anger she felt.

Kylo had done the opposite with the abandonment of his family fresh in front of him every day.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Finn said shaking his head and breaking Rey from her downward spiral of thoughts.

"Have we talked enough about all your feelings?" Kylo snapped. "Have you suitably argued your case so you can feel satisfied you did your best to dissuade her? You call her friend yet I find your lack of faith in her disturbing."

"No one asked you," Poe retorted.

Everyone swayed forward bracing for a fight.

Chewbacca banged his fist on the holotable accidentally hitting the on button for the game board. He smacked it a few more times until it turned back off and gave an angry roar.

Rey startled and stood straight. "He's right. We've wasted enough time arguing. It was good to see both of you but I have to go. It's not safe to be around me or Kylo." She cut her eyes at Finn and Poe. "But not because he's murdery. The First Order wants us dead and they don't care about any casualties they cause in pursuit of us."

"Fine." Finn sighed. Poe nodded but kept his eyes on his hands.

There was another round of hugs and Kylo rolled his eyes to the ceiling muttering, "Spare me."

Snap clomped up the metal grating into the room wheeling Ved on a dolly. "Where do you want to power your droid? He's still at low power from going so long without."

"This way," Kylo said leading Snap to the cargo bay.

When he was out of sight, Finn said, "Are you sure about this? Say the word and we'll get out of here."

"I'm sure. He killed Snoke. He's willing to finish my training and I trust him. He's only been honest with me."

Finn gave a short nod and Poe clapped his arm around Finn's shoulders. "Come on, buddy. " Poe gave her one last solemn but friendly smile and they left.

Rey slumped into the seat at the edge of the holo table and thumped her head down on the cold surface. She did trust Kylo not to lie to her. But was that enough?

"Bye, Rey," Snap waved exiting the cargo hold. Rey lifted her head and said goodbye. The hiss of the door closing behind him filled the quiet interior of the ship.

She didn't hear Kylo approach. For a beast of a man, he could be remarkably light on his feet when he wanted. He cast a shadow over her as he stopped by the table. "We need to leave."

"I don't know where to go anymore."

"We're going back to Mustafar. We'll rebuild the lightsaber first."

Not her lightsaber -- _the_ lightsaber. At least he wasn't claiming it as his own anymore.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I'll be able to always post this frequently but I've been writing as much as I can while the momentum is there. I've combed through these chapters the best I can for errors but after a while of looking at your own work it gets hard to see some of them. I apologize if any of them throw you off! I need a beta reader for sure. 
> 
> Welp! We're on our way out of Act One now and into the heart of the story. I've got a lot planned that I can't wait to get to. *rubs hands together* Muahahahaaaaa.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

Kylo Ren disappeared into the depths of the Falcon after Rey launched them off planet. He hung back in the doorway to the cockpit but stayed silent as they departed. She wanted to assume it was to make sure she didn't need the aid of a copilot.

With the lights of hyperspace zipping by them, Rey set the navicomputer to autopilot since it didn't need much babysitting anyway and went to look for him. They didn't have a chance to talk about the dark presence in his mind that felt too much like Snoke. There was no way he could still be alive. Right? But what did she know? She was new to the whole Force thing.

She picked her way through the ship and found him sprawled out in the gunner's chair with his eyes closed. His long legs bent at the knee to fit in the small space and his arms folded back with his hands resting behind his head. He was motionless and nonreactive to her arrival.

Was he asleep?

He looked like Ben to her this way. The position looked too familiar and comfortable. She could see him younger, in less black, lounging here in the same way.

She frowned. He was Ben even if he insisted on being Kylo Ren. A mask to hide behind. Rey saw too much of him whenever they connected to think anything else.

Her hand hovered over a lock of hair that fell over his brow, pulled by instinct to smooth it away. Before she could give in to her impulse or pull her hand away, Ben Solo's light caff colored eyes snapped open and his hand held her wrist in a bruising grip.

"Ow! What was that for?" Rey tugged her wrist away and rubbed at the bone.

His eyes rounded with surprise and he blinked at her several times before he seemed to register where he was and who she was. "Don't look through my mind while I'm sleeping." His voice low and smoky from sleep rippled through Rey. They were so close, staring straight into each other eyes. It wouldn't take much to be touching him.

She swayed.

_Control yourself. If you want to be a Jedi, you have to learn control._

Rey couldn't keep letting these little peeks at his humanity affect her.

"I wasn't looking through your mind. But nice to know I have permission when you're fully conscious." Rey swallowed and gestured toward his mussed hair. "There was hair in your eye. I was just thinking about moving it."

Kylo's left eyebrow shot up. "You were fixing my hair?"

"No!" Rey winced and backed away a few steps, bumping into the metal paneling behind her. "I was only thinking about it. Do you have to be so difficult?"

He flinched. "I thought you would understand why I wouldn't want anyone rifling through my unconscious mind." Then he looked away from her to stare out the viewport.

Oh. _Oh_. Rey gravitated back toward him. "You're right. I do understand and I promise that's not what I was doing. You looked so peaceful and comfortable — like you've done this a million times before." She searched for something, anything else to say. "Is this a favorite spot?"

"More like an escape." Kylo considered her. "Usually no one followed me down here."

Rey tried to school her expression but he was sharing information about himself. About Ben Solo. No matter what he said, he hadn't killed that part of himself. She rolled her top lip and bit down on it to keep from smiling.

"I was actually trying to find you so we could talk about what happened. Was that Snoke in your mind?" she said, not wanting to spook him off by continuing down the memory lane of his childhood experiences on the Falcon.

His gloves were off and he rubbed his fingers over his eyes to scrub away the sleep and it struck her as beautifully mundane to watch.

Rey tamped down the emotions he kept stirring in her. Why did he have to keep being so normal around her? All the sleeping, talking and eye rubbing — did he not know what it did to her? It wasn't like she hadn't been around other people doing the same things, but with him, it felt intimate. Like he shared a part of himself with her that no one else got to see.

She'd let herself lose hope in his redemption after she rejected his offer — feeling duped by the things the Force had shown her.

But the Force lived — changed.

Multiple paths lead to the same destination.

She'd made the mistake of thinking that changing was going to be easy for Kylo. That it wouldn't take much effort for him to become Ben Solo again. This time she couldn't rush it.

"You have that look in your eyes."

"What?" Rey said. She stopped staring at the blur of hyperspace.

"The way you looked at me on the turbolift."

Did he have a catalog of her every expression?

"You still want to save me," Kylo said.

"Is that so awful? Don't you prefer it to me wanting to kill you?"

He reached for her wrist pausing to check for permission. When she did nothing, he pulled her hand to his chest and rested it flat against his heart. "Look here and see there's nothing worth saving."

What he wanted her to see overwhelmed her as soon as she looked at his core. The shadow in him hissed and rumbled like an approaching sandstorm. It was black but not completely achromatic. If she followed this current, the smoky vapors parted and showed her a softly glowing chink in his dark side armor. It sang to her.

 _Monster. Difficult. Troubled boy_. The words crowded her in different hushed voices as she tried to reach the light. _Was that Leia's voice?_ A chill swept down her spine.

Then she was in front of the golden core of him. It reflected the light into the dark and cast an iridescent shimmer that reminded Rey of the rainbows she could only find in spilled oil.

"You're wrong, Ben," she said, pulling away from him.

"That's nothing," he said. Kylo got up from the chair which forced her to take several steps back. "That's my guilt." His voice wobbled. "It only exists to ensure I suffer for my sins."

Rey pressed her lips together. "I keep seeing the light in you, Ben. You can deny it, but it's holding on to you and waiting you out." She swallowed and curled her fingers into fists at her sides. "I'm good at waiting too."

Rey turned and fled the gunner pit not wanting to hear any more of his justifications.

 

* * *

 

 _Where is my afternoon tea?_ Supreme Leader Armitage Hux thought with annoyance as he looked up from his datapad at his beautiful new office. Neither Snoke nor Kylo Ren made use of an office, but Hux found it an exceedingly useful intimidation tactic to sit behind his massive desk and dictate his orders. The office decor reflected the aesthetic of the First Order albeit at a Hux's level of impeccable taste. He even had his favorite blue velvet sofa installed along the far wall.

Perhaps when he completed conquering the galaxy he would nap there.

"Mitaka!" he shouted into the comm on his desk. "My tea?"

The panel to the office whooshed open and Lieutenant Mitaka hurried in with a chattering cup of tea on a saucer. He held it at arm's length out in front of him as he half-ran half-walked to Hux's desk. "Sorry, Supreme Leader, sir!"

"And have you reviewed the intel reports?" Hux asked, not giving the young lieutenant time to start spouting off excuses for the delay in bringing his tea.

"Yes, Supreme Leader," Mitaka said. He placed the wobbling saucer of tea down on the desk with a final clack of porcelain hitting porcelain. Only a small amount of tea followed the momentum out of the cup and spilled over the lip to pool onto the saucer. Mitaka stared at the brown puddle of liquid in horror. "Apologies, Supreme Leader."

"Silence. Deliver your report, then you may fetch me a fresh cup." _These blubbering idiots can't even manage to deliver a hot cuppa?_ Perhaps he should have a synthesizer installed in his office or appropriate a service droid.

No. He loved witnessing the lieutenant struggle with the delicate teacup.

Hux steepled his fingers as he rested his elbows on the desk and regarded the jittery Mitaka who didn't seem to know where to look. The idiot's eyes kept swiveling between the tea, Hux, and the door.

"The Yuuzhan Vong fleet remains in the Outer Rim as instructed but scouts have detected their coralskippers venturing out as far as the Western Reaches. They have not explored further but it appears that they may move that way."

Hux flexed his fingers. "The Western Reaches?" The wretched planet Jakku was in the Western Reaches. Snoke's pet Kylo Ren forced Hux's ship to detour to Jakku to seek part of a map that would lead Ren to the old Jedi fool Skywalker. Until that moment, the First Order rolled into the galaxy — power unchecked.

Ren was to blame for all of the First Order's recent failures.

Since Hux's brilliant coup, the First Order operated under maximum efficiency and meetings of the senior leadership, or what was left of it after the destruction of the Supremacy, were reinstated. Things were as they should be.

Or they would be after the Yuuzhan Vong served their purpose.

"And their envoy?" said Hux.

"Should be arriving after the next shift change."

Hux's pallid pink lips curled into a sanguinary smile. "Excellent. Let's see how Kylo Ren and his Jedi harlot fare against the Yuuzhan Vong's Hunters." Hux could hardly wait for the day he subjected Kylo Ren to the humiliation the dark force user and his Master employed against Hux. He longed to see Kylo's face reddening with asphyxiation as the life gasped out of him.

"The energy cages?"

Mitaka pulled a datapad from his jacket and swiped through a few screens before answering. "The superconductors were installed this morning and are undergoing tests now."

"Superb. Recall the death troopers. They will need to be ready to join the Hunters."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this tired mom is tired. Shorter chapter this time. Hope you guys enjoy. :)


	8. Chapter Eight

** Chapter Eight **

"You're just going to park the Falcon right in front of your Fortress of Evil?"

Rey bounced her legs on the balls of her feet while sitting in the copilot's chair. When Kylo caught her trying to steer the ship back to her hiding spot she'd used the last time she visited Mustafar, he said, "Move over" and took the controls.

"Seriously though, won't it be a dead giveaway that we're here?" Rey said, trying not to gawk at the sight of Kylo Ren piloting the Millennium Falcon.

"Doubtful," Kylo said. "No one knows about this place."

"Your mother knew about it — not a great secret." Rey propped her elbow up on the edge of the controls console and gazed out the window at the mist blanketing the tortured landscape.

Kylo cut his eyes at her. "Snoke, Luke, my parents, and now you, knew about this place. Most of them are dead." He flicked two levers and the ship lowered to the circular landing platform in front of the imposing castle. "Shall I shorten the list?"

Rey choked. "No — of course not." She rubbed her sweaty palms on the top of her thighs as he brought the Falcon down to the ground smoothly. "You've got a sick sense of humor if you think that was funny."

"My master is quite clever," Ved said from behind Rey. "He has composed the most amusing limeri—"

"Be quiet, Ved," Kylo said and got up from the pilot's seat to exit the cockpit, the fabric of his cloak snapping around his legs.

"Heavens, he's in a touchy mood, isn't he?" Ved asked tilting his matte black metal head towards Rey.

"When isn't he?" she said and followed Kylo out of the ship with Ved clunking along closely behind her.

It was just as gloomy as she remembered. The air smelled sooty and hot. The lava around them burbled and hissed as pockets of air popped as it flowed over rock. Even though the planet was in turmoil, she sensed a quiet settle over Kylo as he strode across the long stone bridge to the doors of the castle.

"So, is this a family property?" Rey asked when she caught up with him. She tried matching his stride but his legs were so long she had to walk a double pace to keep up.

"It was Vader's."

That explained a lot. The dark side of the Force felt settled and old here.

The tall obsidian middle tower loomed over them as they walked toward it and the two pointed peaks that rose on either side hummed a dark song. She wasn't there long before and worried too much about being ambushed when coming up to the castle that she didn't really take it all in. The haunted presence lingered but she also felt a strong sense of loss and death.

 _Many people have died here and not peacefully_.

 

—

Seething under black lacquer plastoid, Oona Ren cursed the ginger twat posturing in front of the First Order. General Armitage Hux declaimed her leader to the galaxy at large while she bided her time. Hux thought himself clever, but not clever enough to realize he'd missed one of the Knights of Ren. 

The Force blessed her with a full bladder when the meeting was called and she made it to the door — hand resting on the handle — before she felt the deaths of her comrades. It was only a small echo in the Force. Oona raged but hid.

All of the Knights of Ren slaughtered?

All but their Master.

 _Dark blessings, Kylo Ren_.

It didn't take long after for an opportunity to arise where she killed one of the troopers and took his uniform.  As a tall, willowy woman, the lanky man's gear fit just right. Thankfully she didn't have to play Goldilekku to find the right one. Her disguise bought her the persona of DT-R29. The vocalizer in the mask hid her voice. It was almost too easy.

Her hand twitched for the comm in her pocket — there'd been time to stow it away in the many pockets of her new uniform — but she hadn't been alone long enough since to send a message. She hoped Kylo Ren was somewhere safe.

"The Yuuzhan Vong envoy has arrived. Two of their Hunters shall join your party to find the traitor Kylo Ren," Hux said, having dismissed the majority of his audience. Only a few officers and the death troopers remained on the bridge. "I want him taken alive for execution." His bloodshot eyes gleamed with manic glee. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," said the troopers.

"The Yuuzhan Vong are a unique race," said Hux, lip curled. "They are quite barbaric and have a hatred of technology. They swore to be cooperative in this mission however because of a shared interest in the capture of the Force users who murdered our Supreme Leader Snoke."

Oona frowned beneath her mask. _Kylo Ren killed Snoke?_

While Hux continued his pointless pontificating on the might of the First Order and their mission with the Yuuzhan Vong, Oona half-listened and reached out with light fingers of the Force just to test the minds of the death troopers around her. They were touched with a cold decayed corruption but their will was weaker than she'd expected. Perhaps she would be able to turn them to her advantage when the time came.

A hush fell over the group and Hux stiffened as two hulking creatures entered the bridge. Oona turned her head to catch a glimpse as they stalked to where General Hux stood before the huge transduristeel viewports.

For a woman who'd seen her share of oddities and savage creatures, the things standing in front of her activated her impulses to run. Normally she could conquer such impulses because she was a trained warrior and knew how to channel her fear. But these creatures were large and grotesquely muscled. Almost every inch of visible skin scarred or tattooed. Bulbous bluish sacs hung under their strangely human eyes.

Hux cleared his throat. "Welcome, Hunters," he said.

One of the Yuuzhan Vong Hunters grunted at Hux and stared around at the bridge's computers with distaste, the corner of his slash of a mouth curling to bare a sharpened incisor.

"These are the warriors you supply us with?" said the Hunter. Though she'd never seen this race, even during the First Order's time in the Unknown Regions, they communicated in faintly accented Basic. "They are tiny and covered with your blasphemous circuitry. Can they not fight with their own strength?" The Hunter approached the group of death troopers and stared down at them.

Oona kept her head up straight and looked only directly in front herself. She attempted to discern the Hunters in the Force but there found nothing. Where she expected to find a spark of their existence, there was a void. She blinked under her helmet, trying to comprehend the possibility that there were living things that did not exist within the Force.

Every creature, great and small, in the known galaxy existed within the Force in some way. The Hunter called the humans' technology blasphemous — but Oona felt their invisibility in the Force as a desecration.

"They slaughtered the dark side users, the Knights of Ren," Hux said. "I can assure you they will be of great use on your mission."

Oona's eyes caught on the snake-like creature coiled around the Yuuzhan Vongs' arms. It was still as stone but she could have sworn she saw its eyes flash in awareness.

"I am Yomin Carr," the Yuuzhan Vong declared. "This is Tsaa Qalu."

Yomin Carr strode past Oona and the smell of him wafted up through the ventilation system of her mask sour and mucific. Acrid bile rose in the back of her throat and Oona welcomed the sharp sting as a barrier against the stench of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Stopping in front of the death trooper to her left, Yomin Carr held out his right hand and the creature curled around his arm unwound itself slowly slithering up to his waiting palm. Once there, the creature extended to its full length and hardened like a staff. Yomin Carr rested one end on the death trooper's shoulder and said, "This one shall be tested against Tsaa Qalu and we shall see if these warriors are worthy."

Hux nodded once and the death trooper broke rank and met the Tsaa Qalu at the center of the bridge. They stood a few feet apart in direct contrast to one another. The death trooper achromatic and hard lines. The Hunter fleshy, battered and archaic.

Tsaa Qalu thrust his arm out to the side and his creature jumped down into his hand.

"Begin," Yomin Carr said just a second before General Hux, leading to the two speaking over each other. Hux made to glare at the Yuuzhan Vong but the glower the Hunter shot his way resolved Hux's glare into placidity. Hux gave the appearance of being cowed but Oona felt the ripples of hostility radiating from him.

Tsaa Qalu sped into motion running the short distance to the death trooper with a roar. Tsaa swung his creature and it shaped itself into a whip and wrapped around the death trooper's wrist as the hand grabbed his still holstered blaster.

Oona winced as the Hunter used the whip to pull the struggling trooper forward then the Hunter flicked his wrist and the creature unwound and shaped into a sword before arcing through the air and chopping both of the troopers hands off. Blood spurted from where hands used to be. The trooper fell to his knees screaming before the Hunter lazily sliced once more and the sound ceased.

Tsaa Qalu's gaze swept the line of standing death troopers and he licked his lips with a bloodthirsty slurp of satisfaction.

Oona Ren, Knight of Ren, begged the Force for her survival. What once belonged to the Supreme Leader now aligned itself with monsters beyond the touch of the Force.

Fear.

Anger.

They swelled within her and she channeled them to shore up her strength in this moment of weakness. Oona would contact Kylo Ren as soon as it was safe.

With the metallic tang of blood hanging in the air and the weight of the enemy's skin on her shoulders, Oona felt safety a remote possibility.

 

—

Ved led Rey to a starkly decorated room that would be hers for the duration of their stay at Darth Vader's castle.

 _Darth Vader's castle_ , Rey marveled with fascinated horror.

The large bed in the center of the room was made with soft black synthweave blankets and sheets. As soon as the door shut behind Ved, Rey dove onto the bed and rolled across to test the softness. For all that everything else in the room was hard lines and reflective obsidian, the bed sank under her like a luscious cloud cradling her tired body.

Her lashes fluttered down to sweep across her sun freckled cheeks and sleep overtook her with the first moment of peace she'd felt in a long time.

That didn't last long. It was the dreams that wrecked her. They plagued her any time her eyes closed to rest.

_“Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.”_

 The haunting echo of Kylo Ren’s voice surrounded Rey in her dreams, much like her own voice had in the cavern under Ahch-To. His pleading face reflected back at her everywhere she looked — gloved hand outstretched in the burning remains of Snoke’s throne room. The scents of ash and blood clouded her senses as if she was in the fiery pits of hell instead of the cold outer reaches of space.

She turned to face him in slow motion, her eyes finding him before she faced him completely. His face soft and hopeful. His lips pursed with the effort of not saying more and she could feel her heart beating in her throat, ready to leap out and fling itself at him.

Kylo Ren swayed towards her with the effort to hold back and not bare himself completely to her. But she could see herself reflected in and through his eyes. So soon after the complete openness of their perfectly synced fight against the Praetorian Guards, Rey felt every emotion flitting over his dark heart, struggling to take root and stay.

No one had ever looked at Rey with so much longing in her life and it hit her like a blistering Jakku sandstorm, sucking all of the air out of the room. It had taken every ounce of her inner strength to refuse him and it had left her feeling more empty and alone than the vigil she'd kept vainly hoping her parents would come back for her one day.

Nothing to them. But she was something to him. His phrasing was rough but she knew enough of his mind now to know what he tried to say, even if it stung.

As much as she wished it to be Ben Solo offering himself on a platter to her with unconditional love, instead Rey knew she was getting Kylo Ren, no compromises. He would stay this version of himself. They would rule the galaxy as he envisioned. She wasn't even sure if Ben Solo really existed now, but there was a man standing in front of her -- wanting her.

No was the only answer she could give him then though. She didn't want to say it -- even with the phantom screams of her friends dying in the escape pods through the Force around her. Rey couldn't be with him at the expense of those who had just become so dear to her. She couldn't be with him like this.

_I want him._

Her soul ached.

_Please._

_Someone to call my own._

The swirling harmony she kept carefully controlled cleaved in two. The precious balance that she achieved with Kylo crumbled under the weight of both their expectations. The heartbreak became reality in her dream as the world trembled around them and a crack ripped through the room separating her from Kylo.

Rey stumbled back and fell. Throne room Kylo Ren disappeared in the mists of her dream and the last look she had of Kylo Ren through the Force materialized in front of her. The face she saw when standing at the hatch of the Millennium Falcon as she made her escape with the last of the Resistance on Crait.

The powerful Kylo Ren knelt before her, looking up, not quite pleading, but reaching out to Rey for something she couldn’t name precisely, but felt deep in her soul. Longing still, but this time cloaked in regret and shame.

_Why?_

“Ben?” Rey's voice was a small echoing question in the chasm of her mind. It came back around to her —  the “Ben” rang a sharper _“Ren. Ren. Ren.”_

The name turned into an inescapable shrill howl and Rey screamed, bolting upright in her bed.

She sucked in air as she reoriented herself.

It was over.

She was safe. She was at Darth Vader's castle with Kylo.

_Safe-ish._

Sweat dripped down Rey's neck and she shivered.

"Rey?" said Kylo through the door. He rapped on it. "Rey?"

Rey ran a trembling hand over her frizzed hair and said, "Come in."

He scowled as he entered the room, eyes sweeping the corners for threats.  Satisfied the room was clear he stepped toward the bed then halted. "You yelled out," he said. Only the way his lips pursed made it sound more like an accusation.

She returned his sour look.

"Nightmares?" he said.

Rey nodded but couldn't say anything else. She certainly wasn't telling him about that dream.

He always seemed to be looking at her like he had syrupy Chandribee honey keeping the words from departing his mouth. Rey would never forget her single taste of the honey. After Starkiller base, Leia made them both a cup of tea with a generous spoonful. She wondered if his words would be as sweet as the honey or if they would be poison.

He swallowed the words and wiped a hand over his face. "Bring the lightsaber pieces to the library when you're ready and we'll work on it." His voice was rough with the unsaid stuck in his throat. Rey could almost see the feelings he bundled up and refused lodged there. Was he punishing himself?

Her heart sank. All this time he chased her she held out hope it meant he still wanted her despite her rejection. Now that they were together again, that hope he would change on his own and ask her again slipped through her fingers every time he held back.

She stood up from the bed before he could leave. "Wait, I have them here."

Rey smoothed her sleep-rumpled clothes and rummaged in her pack to pull out the halved pieces of the lightsaber. She sat on the edge of the bed and motioned for Kylo to join her.

He started to shake his head but jerked forward and sat on the mattress, holding himself away from her.

Rey held the hilt in one hand and in the other, she opened her hand to reveal the glittering halves of the kyber crystal. Kylo reached for them and Rey held them out for him to take.

Kylo stared at the pieces of the kyber crystals in his oversized hand. Rey shook herself internally and checked her mental defenses. Definitely didn't want Kylo finding out she had lustful thoughts of his hands.

"These are halved perfectly." He turned them over in his hand and ran his fingers along the smooth edges.

Rey bit the inside of her lower lip until it hurt.

"This isn't ruined." Kylo looked up at her, then unable to keep up his mask of impassivity, a smile crept up the corners of his lips and his eyes gleamed. "This is perfect."

That smile gut punched her and all the air fled Rey's lungs. His smile was lopsided, rakish and — she put a hand out behind her on the bed to steady herself — mischievous.

"It is?" Rey wheezed. She tried to suppress the complicated feelings coursing through her veins and ignored the hypocrisy of it. She was tender from her dream and couldn't help herself.

 What could she do with a broken kyber crystal? Maybe she could make a smaller, weaker lightsaber? A lightdagger? "Won't it be unstable like yours if I try to use it?"

Kylo shook his head. "Jedi and Sith used to cut their crystals to improve clarity and focus power. This crystal broke into two clean pieces with no cracks to cause instability. They're perfect."

"So we'll just use one to rebuild the lightsaber and I'll have a spare." The scavenger in her approved.

"No. We'll use them both."

Rey frowned at him.

"A double-bladed lightsaber like your staff. You could also use it like a single bladed lightsaber," Kylo said.

"No — really?" Rey breathed. She ran her fingers over the crystals in his palm and accidentally grazed against his skin. His hand enclosed hers completely in a warm grip.

Her eyes flew up to meet his. The smile was gone.

He swallowed and stood, pulling her up with him by the hand.

Expecting him to let go, Rey tugged gently on her hand but he held fast.

"Let me help you," he said.

The way Kylo looked at her, Rey knew this was another chance. A small branch. A stone skipping across a still sand to test for treacherous pits.

She waited long enough. Only he could save himself, but she could help with the polishing.

Rey relaxed her hand in his and wrapped her fingers around his. "I do need a teacher," she said, voice only a little unsteady.

Kylo's hand clenched around hers and he let go quickly. The second smile of Kylo Ren, because Rey was definitely keeping count, swept across his full lips. His smiles were rarer than a rainbow on Jakku and she would treasure each one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was delayed due to my mother-in-law being in town for a visit -- which meant I didn't have much writing time. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter -- thanks for the Kudos! :)
> 
> All the usual disclaimers apply -- I am using the Yuuzhan Vong from the EU, the Knights of Ren and Mustafar to suit my purposes


	9. Chapter Nine

** Chapter Nine **

_There once was a girl from Naboo_

_Whom Separatists tried to subdue_

_Along came a Jedi_

_Who made her cry_

_A fatal mistake he couldn't undo_

Extensive air ventilators and filtration units had to be installed underneath the carved rock of the hallways of the castle. Rey put a hand on the black wall as she followed Ved. It was imperfect, pocked and entirely organic — as if the castle was chiseled from stone rather than built.  The hum of machinery was audible underfoot and overhead. It worked to keep the castle habitable in the midst of all the toxic fumes from the lava river running under the fortress spewed into the air. Short bursts of breathing atmosphere wouldn't be fatal and probably wouldn't cause much damage to a human but extended exposure couldn't be healthy.

Rey tried to recall what she read in the survival training programs she salvaged as a child from the wrecked Imperial ships. Hazard warnings on pages listing acidic corrosion and death by silent asphyxiation caused by an excess of carbon dioxide came to mind. Finn said the Stormtrooper helmets only filtered smoke — not toxins. Would Kylo's mask have a defense against airborne toxins?

He didn't have the mask anymore, crushed by the blorash thing, so that didn't matter.

Ved acted as a tour guide, pausing to point out landmarks within the castle to help her find her way. Rey followed wordlessly as she cataloged every door and hallway they didn't explore.

As they descended from the upper floors on a set of stairs that struck her as archaic, Rey felt a pull deep in the castle. She recognized it as sister to the cave on Ahch-To with an echo of a promise for answers and purpose. An infernal rhythm that kindled the blood in her veins.

Rey felt it happening as if she floated from her body and watched as a spectator. She examined the way sinister call appealed to her anger, warped her sense of justice and promised satisfaction. It stoked the passion in her belly and whispered her deepest fears.

_Kylo Ren just wants to use you for your power._

_The Resistance just wants to use you._

_They're afraid of you._

_Luke Skywalker feared you as he feared Kylo Ren._

_You'll never save Ben Solo._

_You will succumb to the darkness_.

Rey froze as the words impaled her. She shook and reached out to clench a hand on Ved's arm. Her legs were quicksand sinking fast beneath her.

"Mistress?" Ved's back-lit eyes flashed at her and scanned across her face. "Your vitals are elevated, Mistress Rey. Are you quite alright?"

"What — what's down there?" Rey tried to swallow but her mouth was dry and she coughed. She pointed with her free hand down the shadowed hallway opposite of the one leading to the study.

Ved's head swiveled audibly as he looked from Rey to the hallway and back again several times.

"You're not to go there, Mistress Rey. Master Kylo has forbidden anyone to go into the southern wing."

"It — " Rey stopped. The oppressiveness lifted off of her and she regained her composure. Had it just been the effects of exposure to the gases? She didn't think she would have felt better so quickly if that was the case.

What was in the southern wing that Kylo didn't want her to see?

It was hard to hide anything from a scavenger.

But whatever was down that hallway scared her more than the cave on Ahch-To. The cave embodied the dark side of the Force but hadn't been malevolent. The darkness here exuded viciousness and poison like the air surrounding it.

Rey kept her eyes on the hall to the southern wing as Ved led her past — like she would on an enemy trying to circle behind her. A prickle rose the baby hairs on the back of her neck and she ground her teeth, willing her feet to keep moving toward the red light that suddenly seemed warm glowing out from the open library door.

She walked in with Ved hot on her heels, already vocalizing before Kylo even looked up from the journal he scribbled in. "Master, Mistress Rey is quite distressed. Her vitals are elevated. Blood pressure is beyond normal ranges and — "

"Don't tell on me," Rey said, hushing the droid. "I'm fine."

Kylo set his inked quill into a stand and examined Rey. "Your lips are white."

Rey's mouth fell open and she touched her lips. Like that would confirm or deny their color. "I am not. It was nothing."

"What happened?"

Ved told him about Rey's pause at the southern wing and described Rey as getting lost in thought as humans sometimes did. "Don't go down there, Rey," Kylo said. "It's not a secret. I'm not hiding anything from you. This castle was built on an ancient Sith temple. You've already seen what the dark side wanted to show you, no need to see this version of it."

"I wasn't going to go down there."

Kylo got up from the desk. "Sure. It would be completely in character for you to deny your curiosity." He raised his eyebrows and gestured for her to take a seat in the high-backed leather chair at the desk. He compressed a button on the side of the desk and a shelf extended bearing a basket he removed and set on the table. Each of the lightsaber pieces shone clean resting on dark red velvet. Small tools lay in neat rows like soldiers waiting for their orders. Such care went into prepping for the repair. Such ceremony.

Rey smirked at Kylo. He cleared his throat. "Ved put them away."

"Sure," Rey said. "It would be completely in character for you to trust the saber with someone else."

Kylo scowled at her but the way the left corner of his mouth kept twitching made her think he was trying not to laugh.

"You've already put it back together, haven't you?" Kylo said.

"Yes. I know how all the pieces fit together. It makes perfect sense. All I need is a better welder to repair the hilt and some of the pieces inside but I didn't want to close it up until I was sure everything was right. I just haven't been able to get the crystal to do anything but sit there. It doesn't fit in the original setting." Rey sat in the large chair, the toes of her boots just grazing the carpet.

Kylo stood with perfect posture over her beside the chair. "It never fit in the original setting. The crystal has to be focused and set with the Force. It's not just mechanics." The way he stood and delivered the information reminded her of the stiff holos of Imperial instructors giving lessons.

"And how do you do that?" Rey picked up a crystal and squinted at it.

"It's like meditating only you're channeling your energy through the crystal to attune it to the saber. But we aren't there yet. You have to rebuild the hilt first to fit two crystals."

"I have scrap metal back on the Falcon I can use."

Kylo cleared his throat and words weighed his tongue down. He took a quick breath then said, "I have something for you — for it." He shook his head. "If you want it." The tip of one ear peeking through his thick hair was tinged pink.

Rey grinned, the force of it making her cheeks ache. "What is it?"

Out of the deep pocket of his cloak, Kylo extracted an elegantly carved cylinder of glassy spotted black rock. He gave it to her and she turned it over in her hands, circling her finger along the white clustered crystals scattered throughout the rock. "It's beautiful," she said.

"It's snowflake obsidian — from this castle."

Rey attempted to dim her grin but it was impossible. How could this make her feel so bright after the dark pit of despair she'd experienced in the hallway.

 "Snow, huh?"

He smiled a little. Smile number three made another tally mark in her mental notebook. "You could use it as the center of your hilt with two completely separate casings for the crystals, one on either side. It would increase stability."

She couldn't stop turning over the carved obsidian trying to memorize every facet. The white crystals did look like snowfall on a dark night. Her heart felt heavier than the polished stone in her hand. Kylo wouldn't be ignorant of the symbolism of this gift. Not only did it remind her of their lightsaber battle in the snowy forest of Starkiller base, but of the time he invited to her to examine his light flecked soul. The obsidian fit perfectly in her hand — each end carved with a raised dotted line like gems had been pulled from the rock. It was the most beautiful and special thing anyone had ever given her.

Rey hated crying. It was a gross misuse of precious water. She couldn't help the tears that pricked at her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry. If you don't like it you don't have to use it. I just thought — "

"No, you idiot," Rey said, wiping her face on her sleeve. "I'm crying because I love it."

"What?"

"This is highly unusual," Ved piped in. "I shall record it as a new protocol for the possible causes of female tears."

"What? No, Ved — go away." Kylo pushed Ved lightly out the door with the Force and closed the panel behind him. Kylo crouched down beside the chair Rey sat in and rested a hand on the padded leather arm. He stared at her, eyes tracking every nuance of expression that flitted over her face. "You like it?"

Rey nodded with a bleary smile. "It really is perfect."

Kylo brushed a tear from her cheek with his thumb, cradling her cheek and jaw in his palm. "I don't want to make you cry." His voice was gruff.

Swallowing down a lump in her throat, Rey concentrated on keeping her eyes on his and not on his lips.

His lips parted and closed drawing her focus back to them. He was so close. Closer than he'd been on the turbolift when he was taking her to his Master. She knew what came next when people were this close. She'd been afraid on the Supremacy of the feelings she'd detected about her within Kylo. Only distantly did she know that some of the nerves in her stomach were caused by the intense desire to know what his lips would feel like on hers.

He looked his fill of her in the turbolift, as if seeing her for the first time, but hadn't kissed her.

She fisted a hand in her lap and released some of the holds she had on her walls against Kylo to let a hint of her feelings escape.

His eyes instantly locked to her lips and she felt light-headed as anticipation squeezed at her lungs.

Kylo's thumb on her cheek slid down to her parted lips. He watched as he swept the pad of his thumb across her lower lip. Rey tightened the fist in her lap, willing herself not to shake.

"You're trembling," said Kylo, his voice low and thick. "What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid."

Kylo looked away from her mouth to meet her eyes with a look that blazed into her. "You want me." It was a statement but his words were uncharacteristically underscored with uncertainty. The tiniest waver she barely detected. "You like me even though you think I'm a monster."

"I don't like monsters. I like Ben."

He licked his lips, eyes tracing across her face. His jaw tensed as he chewed on the words he wanted to say. Rey was an expert at waiting and gave him time. His knuckles whitened with his grip on the arm of the chair.

He met her eyes again. "I am Ben."

A breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding whooshed out of her and she collapsed toward him. She caught herself by bracing her hands on his shoulders. She squeezed the coiled muscles under her hands and eased her defenses against him.

Enough waiting.

Rey closed the distance between them and pressed her lips against his. They bumped together roughly and she felt his teeth graze her lips. Inexperienced but not ignorant, Rey took the few seconds of advantage the element of the surprise granted and angled her head slightly to try again.

Ben's other hand came up to cup the other side of her face and he returned the kiss with pliant lips that sent a surge of exhilaration through her. They kissed, closed-mouthed but communicating better than they did with words. Rey tasted salt and realized her lips were wet. She pulled away and saw a single slick tear track going down Ben's cheek.

"Why?" she said, lips hovering near his.

"You want this with me?"

Rey bit her sensitized lip and his eyes followed like a magnet. "I want to try," she said. He was with her now. He was Ben now. Once they were away from this insulated place, there was no guarantee he wouldn't leave her or choose the First Order over her if there was a way for him to get it back. She couldn't think that way. She felt his sincerity and it wasn't fair of her to doubt it.

He leaned forward to kiss her again and traced the tip of his tongue along the center of her lower lip. Rey's eyes drifted closed.

"Let me in," Ben said.

And she parted her lips to let him taste her heart and soul. The passion he ignited within her was a far cry from the placid teachings of the Jedi and at the moment she didn't care. His lips on hers — she welcomed the consuming fire.

"Master?" came the exceedingly proper voice of Ved. The droid was either stealthier than Rey realized or she'd completely lost awareness of her surroundings. The droid had to have some sort of stealth protocol. "My human sustenance schedules indicate that you and Mistress Rey are in need of nutrition to continue at peak physical and mental performance. Master Kylo! There is no need to devour our guest."

Ved marched over like he was going to pull Ben off of Rey.

Ben growled. "I wasn't _eating_ her."

Rey clapped a hand over her mouth and laughed.

Ved hummed disbelievingly. "Well then. Mistress Rey, do you have any preference for your method of sustenance? I specialize in Tatooine comfort food."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW. I hope you guys liked this chapter. It took me several tries starting it from several different points of views before one felt like it worked — and once it did, well, Rey ran away with it I'm afraid and I had little control over what was happening. This was supposed to be a nice technical chapter with some lightsaber rebuilding and maybe some sparring but as you can see, Kylo and Rey had other things in mind. Better enjoy it while they can. A quiet reprieve for touchy-feely moments can only last so long, right?


	10. Chapter Ten

** Chapter Ten **

After the curious display between Master Kylo and Mistress Rey in the library, Ved thought it prudent to update his interpersonal protocols. His original master had the ingenuity to program V-33D with the ability to improvise and update his own protocol listings. This had been fortunate considering his newer, younger master had less mechanical inclinations than his predecessor.

Until Mistress Rey abducted him from his home, the only place Ved had ever been was Darth Vader's castle. Which meant there hadn't been much opportunity to observe human interpersonal behavior. It appeared to have been Master Vader's deepest desire to have as little contact with other beings as possible while in his sanctum.

Mistress Rey tried to convince Ved that she liked what Master Kylo was doing to her face, although admitting such made her face flush red and she fled the room. Master Kylo stared at the door for a long time after she left but didn't follow his distressed cohort. Is that what she was? A cohort? Master Vader never mashed faces with his cohorts.

Ved searched internally for understanding other labels for human relationships and came up blank.

So once each of his charges were settled in their chambers with servings of steaming bantha-steak soup, Tatooine flatbread and an icy cold glass of blue milk, Ved retired to his charging pod and hooked himself into the database Master Kylo installed a few years ago to allow Ved access to more up-to-date protocols. 

He stopped at the first relevant listing that indicating face smashing — defined as _kissing_ — and downloaded it. The protocol titled "Droid as Chaperone" held a weight of authority Ved felt fit in with his role in the castle perfectly. The chaperone was a responsible adult — Ved was definitely older than either of the humans in residence — who accompanied and supervised young people.

"Circuits!" Ved exclaimed as he processed the data. He'd already failed in one of his most essential duties as a chaperone. He certainly shouldn't have allowed that kiss to happen.

 

—

 

Ben tried to focus. Because this was important. Important to Rey. They'd had little time alone together since they kissed the previous day in the library — mostly because Ved had taken to hovering nearby with his red eyes glowing dimly any time Ben got too close to Rey.

As soon as he kissed her the day before, he realized it may have been a mistake. Up until that point, he'd been buoyed on this path by things out of his control. He hadn't felt like he had any choice other than to go along with Rey's plan because there was no way he could take back the First Order on his own. He planned to continue to turn Rey to his objectives — if both of them went back to the First Order, his chances of reestablishing himself doubled, at least.

Ben felt like it was still too late to "return to the light" as Rey and his mother thought possible.

He killed his father.

He couldn't forgive himself for that - so why would anyone else?

An unfortunate side-effect of their kiss — he couldn't stop thinking about what he could do to deserve more of her kisses.

With just one kiss she seared him through and all of the light energy she held in a deep well transferred to his body and thrummed under his skin.  It was a shock to his system that had sent synapses firing inside of him that had been long buried. The burden on his soul weighed on him but lighter, like he could breathe just a little easier.

His head felt a bit fuzzy replaying the moment in his mind.

Rey _ahemed_ and looked at him pointedly.

He blinked until his eyes cleared and he could see her sitting clearly in front of him. She had a small smirk on her lips like she knew exactly what he was thinking about. Which sent his eyes to the black droid hovering in the doorway of the library.

"Shall we?" Rey asked and pointed to the lightsaber pieces on the desk before them.

They were supposed to be working on rebuilding her lightsaber. And once they got started, Ben shaking the amorous thoughts from his head, it hadn't taken long for Rey to assemble the pieces with her new hilt of snowflake obsidian. She didn't need his help with that. She was capable and confident as she worked.

When they got to the part where she needed to focus her halved crystal pieces into their separate chambers, Ben reached his hands across the table, palms up. "Let me show you how to do it," he said.

Slowly, she rested her hands on his and closed her eyes. He closed his and allowed her access to his mind. She was hesitant and careful not to go anywhere beyond the path he showed her to the information she needed. Her gentle, careful touch in his mind floored him nearly as bad as her kiss.

Then she was there, pulling on the memory until it played for her. Luke, with a darker beard than Rey remembered, stood before a group of students and went over the basics of how to meditate and attune lightsaber crystals. Rey watched with eagerness to soak up the teachings of Luke before he became jaded. Ben felt a sharp pang at her joy in his memory.  This version of Luke had been an uncle he trusted.

Feeling his distress, Rey soothed over the wound in his mind and he let it fade away as she internalized the knowledge she needed to complete her weapon.

 

 

—

 

Oona Ren winced at the scene unfolding before her. She committed her fair share of violence, but never at this level of disregard for life. As a Knight of Ren, the deaths and violence caused were instrumental, not indiscriminate.

The Yuuzhan Vong Hunters justified their slaughter as a test to their victim's worthiness. If they survived — worthy. If not, then they were dead and worthless. There had been none yet named worthy.

The death troopers required no such justification. Their pleasure in death untainted by motive.

 _This is instrumental_ , she told herself. Instrumental to her survival. Kill or be killed. She leveled the blaster — a weapon with zero sophistication — and fired into the innocent crowd as the death trooper squad leader demanded information on the whereabouts of their prey. Oona had to hide her vibrosaber aboard the Finalizer before she infiltrated the death troopers. She missed it dearly.

She took no delight in the killing but celebrated each breadcrumb the commando squad followed that led nowhere.

The squad leader put his hand in the air and gestured for the group to fan out and around up any stragglers.

A thrill ran down Oona's spine as she realized this may finally be her chance to send a comm to Master Kylo Ren. She side-stepped into the forest bordering the small town they razed. Oona crept through the trees, watching her surroundings for any other troopers or one of the Vong Hunters. Once the trees started to grow larger and denser, Oona assessed she was far enough in to pull out the device from the pocket at her hip.

"Master Ren," she whispered into the small comm.

She waited with her back against a tree-trunk that was easily as wide as a Hutt.

A few moments later, the comm crackled in response. "Oona?" came Master Ren's disbelieving voice.

Oona sagged against the rough bark, feeling the scrape of the jagged wood through her death trooper gear. "Master Ren, you're alive."

"You're alive," he said fiercely. "I thought Hux killed everyone."

Oona nodded at the comm even though he couldn't see her. "I don't have much time. I barely escaped death by matter of being late and managed to disguise myself as a death trooper. Master Ren, the death troopers hunt you along with the most abhorrent beings I've ever met. They're an aberration in the force. A void. They can't be sensed or influenced and their weapons are some kind of creature."

"They're a completely organic race?"

"Yes," she said.

There was a long pause.

"If you can escape, come to Mustafar," Kylo said.

Oona pressed the button to send her reply but a heavy step behind her made her freeze. "What's this?" rumbled the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter behind her. He grasped her shoulder with one meaty scarred hand and lifted her up in midair. "Infidel!" He ripped the comm out of her hand and threw it to the dirt before grounding his boot down on top of it. "Who was that you spoke to like a coward hiding in the woods? Are you traitor?"

"No, I—" Oona gasped as he wrapped his grotesque fingers around her throat. Alarms monitoring her vitals in her helmet blared as her flow of oxygen restricted.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the death trooper squad leader stepped out a few paces away.

"He's gone berserk!" Oona choked out, flailing toward the Hunter holding her.

The death trooper squawked out a command to the rest of his unit and cocked his DLT-19D heavy blaster rifle with preternatural swiftness. Oona braced for impact but the shot rocketed through the Hunter and he dropped her as he staggered back.

Green spun around her as sky blurred with land. She blinked and shook her head as the sensors in her helmet chimed at her and started tagging approaching threats all around her. She dragged herself up and gathered her bearings, ready to start swinging.

"Freeze," said the death trooper as he swung his heavy blaster to aim at her.

Oona lifted her arms up slowly and reviewed the target map laid out at low opacity across her visor. All of the troopers surrounded her. One Vong was unaccounted for but the one that was shot was groaning on the ground several feet behind her.

"I thought you were strange," the death trooper said. "You're not one of us. Who are you?"

Oona stayed silent, trying to calculate the odds of fighting them all and winning. It was low. Too low.

The death trooper stepped closer keeping his blaster trained on her. "I heard Mustafar." The trooper cocked his head at her and the bright orange sun of this planet reflected off his visor. "What's on Mustafar, traitor?"

"I'll tell you nothing," Oona said. She sensed the trooper behind her but couldn't do anything about it.

He clubbed her over the head and darkness fell as she heard the leader saying, "Don't worry. I"ll find out."

 

—

A chill of unease crept down Rey's back as the comm Ben held went silent after the savage voice on the other end yelled, "Infidel!"

"Do you think those beings are related to what Jess and Snap saw — to the blorash jelly thing?" Rey worried her hands in her lap, twisting the cylinder of her newly crafted lightsaber.

Ben stared at nothing for a long time and Rey waited. She sat ready in her chair, every muscle poised for action whenever Ben responded.

When he finally swung his gaze to hers, his brown eyes darkened to black. "It would be an unlikely coincidence. The blorash jelly mesh didn't have a presence in the force either. Ved's analysis of the creature determined it wasn't of any known species in our galaxy. Whoever these hunters being are, they're from the Unknown Regions."

Rey rubbed her thumb along the raised bumps at the end of her obsidian hilt.

"But why are they working with Hux?" Ben wondered aloud, rubbing his hand over his eyes and down his cheeks.

"I thought the First Order built up its power hiding in the Unknown Regions," Rey said. "Do they still have ties to worlds there?"

"I didn't spend much time out there. The First Order had already started its conquest of the galaxy when I joined." Ben tensed his jaw as he thought. "Snoke was from the Unknown Regions."

Rey's churned at the mention of Ben's former master. Just his name dredged up the memories of his cruel assault on her mind. Her own Force abilities had been useless against him. "The darkness I felt in your mind when you saw the Falcon, do you think that could be related?" She couldn't bring herself to question whether or not Snoke was really dead. She'd seen him slashed in two, body lying in pieces. He was dead.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

Ben swallowed. "I don't know. I thought I understood Snoke, but a lot of that has been challenged since meeting you." He shot her a wry half-grin.

 _3.5 smiles_ , Rey tallied. _Could you tally half a smile?_ She rounded up. _4 smiles._

But the smile faded as quickly as it had appeared. "The First Order now probably knows where we are and have Oona. They've either already killed her or are keeping her as bait."

Rey tried to remain impassive as the husky voice of the female Knight of Ren replayed in her mind. She reminded herself that Ben kissed her. That he and Rey were doing some kind of _thing_.

What kind of thing, Rey had no idea.

And it really didn't feel like this was a particularly good time to try to have a _thing_.

Especially with the Most Wanted Man in the Galaxy.

"We have to leave," Rey said. She resigned herself to the fact there would be little time to explore kissing in depth with Ben, which had been exceptionally hard anyway due to Ved's overbearing manner.

"We do," he agreed. "But we need to take as much as we can load onto the Falcon. We haven't even started your training. And even with the castle's defenses activated, I'm not sure how they will fare against these creatures. Most of them are tied to the Force." He looked around the library, mouth down-turned.

Hardly having owned anything of sentimental value, Rey couldn't even begin to imagine what Ben felt knowing he could lose everything here to a vindictive enemy.

"Any system is a minimum of 6-hour jump from here. We have time to pack."

And so they did.

 

—

 

Rey served as pilot on the Falcon for their departure from Mustafar. This time Ben was coaxed reluctantly into being her co-pilot but the sullen look on his face indicated he'd rather be in the maw of a Sarlacc.

"Are we jumping to the First Order?" Rey said, flicking the series of controls that powered the Falcon.

"No. If they kept Oona as bait we have some time," Ben said. Rey grimaced at the callousness and he looked at her sharply. "We didn't even start your training. Do you think it would be a good idea to walk into a trap unprepared?"

Rey pursed her lips and glared at him. "No, of course, I don't think that would be a good idea. Won't it be worse for her the longer they have her?"

"She's trained for this type of situation. You haven't. She'll be okay for a few days. We go in now with you as you are and all three of us will be dead."

"I'm not that bad," Rey protested.

"Maybe not. But Hux likes his tech and I guarantee you he has something to use against us. We are not going in there with you unprepared. Wasn't the whole point of this for me to teach you and you help me get the First Order back? Well, this is it."

"Yes," Rey gritted out and lifted the ship off the ground, beginning their ascent to the atmosphere. "So where to?"

"Dagobah — it's unpopulated by advanced lifeforms. Ved, calculate the jump," Ben said.

Just as Ved affirmed his master's request, the proximity alarms on the ship blared.

"What is that?" Rey pointed out the viewport.

"It's one of the organic ships." Ben cursed and shoved out of his chair. "I'm going down to the gun pit. Do your best to outrun them and get into position for the jump as soon as Ved is done. Ved —  how long on those calculations?"

"Three minutes, Master," Ved said.

Ben doubled back after leaving the cockpit and poked his head in. "Rey, will you open the connection between us? I think it would help."

Rey bit her lip. She was so vulnerable when she let him in but remembered in Snoke's throne room the way they'd so fluidly fought in tandem and lifted the barriers. She felt the cool slide of his mind against hers and he left.

The alarms got louder as the organic ship advanced on the Falcon.

"Strap in, Ved," Rey said and steered the ship into a roll as the seed shaped ship shot a glowing orange missile at them. Her knees went weak when she saw that it was following their spiral to stay on trajectory.

_Heat-seeking._

" _Focus, Rey_ ," Ben said through their connection.

She kept her eyes open, steering the ship on a random course but heeded Ben's advice and focused intently. Something snapped into place between her and Ben and she felt almost as if they were one. He anticipated her every movement of the ship and began firing at the magma missile trailing the Falcon.

He connected and the magma exploded.

Rey let out a scream of victory and then her hands moved as if they had the muscle memory of years driving this ship in and out of danger. Like when she'd entered Ben's mind on Starkiller base, doors in his mind flew open transmitting all of his piloting skills to her faster than Ved could compute the jump coordinates.

The enemy ship shot three retaliatory blasts of magma.

Rey sent the Falcon into a series of dives and rolls to evade the pursuing ship while Ben shot down each of their weapons.

"Coordinates calculated," Ved announced.

"Finally," said Rey and pulled the Falcon hard up and to the right to get into position.

Five more roiling magma missiles were inbound, following the Falcon up into the outer layers of the planet's atmosphere. Ben continued to shoot with one missile advancing fast as he took out the others.

The Falcon barely free of Mustafar's gravitational pull — Rey slapped her hand down on the switch to activate the jump. Hyperspace blurred around them just as the last missile was seconds away from colliding with their ship.

Rey collapsed into her seat, all the adrenaline escaping her body and leaving it a pile of jelly.

Ben's bounded into the cockpit, his heavy boots announcing his arrival far before he darkened the door.

He almost looked... _giddy?_

 _No_ , Rey thought. Even if he wasn't exactly Kylo Ren to her anymore, she couldn't see Ben Solo being so unrestrainedly happy.

"Yes," Ben said aloud, then moved his massive body to the tight space between her and the controls. He ducked his head down and pressed his lips to hers.

The doubt fled as soon as his warm lips were on hers, wooing them to open with his lips tugging at hers. The aftershock of the adrenaline leaving her system and his kiss made Rey shake and she steadied herself by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. She parted her lips beneath his, inviting him in.

The kiss was only the beginning. The contact made any remaining barriers between them disappear. It wasn't the same as being in his mind. It was a oneness. A wholeness. Rey was lost in it. Every part of her craved this deep connection with him even when her mind reminded her of how much was a stake. But that thought was barely a blip in the sea of burning sensation that ignited between them.

Touching his hand through their connection had felt like a live wire. Kissing him was a never-ending current of electricity that made her heart pound.

Ben pulled away but hovered close. "That was amazing."

Rey touched her lips dazedly. "You are a good kisser."

Ben Solo unleashed the full force of his grin and Rey fell back against the pilot's seat absolutely slain. That had to count as two smiles, at the very least. Their connection was still open and sharing her thoughts with him causing his grin to widen and her heart stuttered. _Okay, three smiles._

"Stop," he said, shielding his mouth. His cheeks flushed pink. "That's not what I meant, although..." He raised his eyebrows and Rey rolled her eyes even though she had a goofy grin of her own that wouldn't go away. Ben stood to his full height and massaged the back of his neck. "Flying like that — with you. I've never experienced anything like it."

"You're welcome," Ved interrupted.

Ben jerked and looked back at the droid. Rey had forgotten he was in the cockpit with them.

"For what?" Ben said.

"For allowing you that congratulatory kiss. Please note that it was only because you were suitably supervised, by me, that I permitted it. If we had not just prevailed in dire life or death circumstances, you would have been reprimanded for your behavior. You have already violated my chaperon protocol previously. Two more strikes and you shall no longer be an eligible suitor for Mistress Rey. You are proving to be quite the scoundrel, Master Ren."

A shadow crossed over Ben at Ved's words. Rey thought she heard the word _scoundrel_ ricocheting in Kylo's mind like stray blaster fire. He pushed her from the thoughts, gently scooting her away. Some of the barriers in their minds reestablished themselves naturally, but there was still an undercurrent of him around her.

"We don't need a chaperone," Ben said. "We're both adults."

Ved swiveled his head toward Ben. "You are _children_."

"This is ridiculous, droid. I am a thirty-year-old man. End whatever chaperone protocol you seem to think applies here. It doesn't."

The gears in Ved's neck whirred as he turned to Rey. "My responsibility here is not to you, Master Ren, but to Mistress Rey. Do you permit these attentions, Mistress?" His robotic intonation lilted in disbelief and Ved's eyes glowed in anticipation of her response.

Rey was flattered by Ved's protectiveness and smiled him. "You're a sweet droid, Ved. But I can take care of myself. You see that scar on Ben's face? I gave that to him the last time he made me angry."

"Very good then," said Ved. "I shall decrease the chaperone protocol."

"Erase it," Ben commanded.

Ved harrumphed. "I'm going to my power cell."


	11. Chapter Eleven

** Chapter Eleven **

For a place that promised so much beauty with its lush greenness and abundant water, Dagobah smelled like the ass end of a bantha. The fetid air curled in tendrils of mist that assaulted Rey's nose the second she stepped out of the freighter and breathed in raw atmosphere.  Not only was it the rankest place she'd ever smelled, the air suffocated like nothing she'd ever felt in her life.

The air on Jakku was hot and dry, sucking every bit of moisture from the living and earth. The humidity of Dagobah was so intense felt as it the air itself was a sentient being. Like it reached into every pore of Rey's exposed skin to drown her above water. Despite this, an essence of purity permeated the Force emanating from the planet. Rey decided that the planet was not trying to kill her through acts of odor and oppressive sogginess.

Rey felt the Force pulling her hard to a very specific area of the swampland of the planet upon their arrival. Now she surveyed the wet terrain around her. The trees all bowed down to the earth, as if fearful to reach out towards the sky.

Ved stepped out of the Falcon behind her, joints squeaking. "Oh dear, this humidity is going to condensate all over me and corrode my gears!" he fretted.

"You'll be fine," Rey said. "You can stay in the controlled environment of the ship." She tapped her forefinger against her closed lips. "And maybe I can arrange for an oil bath before we leave."

Ved perked up at the last bit. "An oil bath, you say? Thank the maker! These old joints certainly could use it." He extended one arm in demonstration and the elbow joint creaked.

"You're spoiling the droid. At first it's the occasional oil bath but before you know it he's going to be asking for de-carbonization buffing and upgrades," Ben grumbled.

"Perhaps if my maintenance wasn't so poorly attended."

"Aren't you supposed to be a self-sufficient droid?"

If Ved had a nose, he would have sniffed. "Even an independent droid such as myself requires care to ensure full operational capacity."

"Ignore him, Ved," Rey said shaking her head at Ben.

Ved clunked off back into the ship, muttering about air moisture percentages and sullen masters.

Rey stared out into the swampy forest, almost sure she'd seen something moving in the water. The surface was still now and she couldn't be sure if it had been a trick of the light. Ben came to stand beside her.

"Does this place have some family history too? There's nothing here. Hard to imagine you stumbled across the place." Rey said.

Ben's mouth twisted. "Hard to find a place in the galaxy that doesn't have some kind of family history."

"It feels a lot like Luke's island. A balance of the light and the dark."

"The Force is pure and strong here. It has a dark cave like the one you went in on the island," Ben said. Emotions flitted across his face and he swallowed. "Luke trained here with Yoda. He told me he had a vision of his father in the cave."

"Did you know his father was Darth Vader?"

"No, he neglected to mention that fact," said Ben, squeezing his fists at his sides.

Rey found the feelings rolling off of him were of hurt and disappointment rather than anger. Out of an unnatural reflex, her hand went up to rest on his forearm.

"They didn't tell you."

"I found out via the HoloNet same as the rest of the galaxy. It wasn't until then that I understood my mother's over-protectiveness. All the hushed conversations I heard as a child. I knew I was different. I never saw other children get into so much trouble for bad behavior. My mother treated every misstep as a possible path to the dark side." He slid her hand down his arm to his waiting palm so he could hold it. "They were so scared of what I could become. She was so scared she didn't even want to deal with me anymore. That's why they shipped me off to Luke."

Rey rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. "Do you think you'll ever talk to her again?"

"You implied she didn't want to see to me."

Rey winced. "I may have exaggerated. You were being a jerk. I should probably check in with her." Ben lifted his eyebrows and he looked so much like his mother Rey nearly laughed out loud. "I really should. Does it upset you when I bring her up or talk about her?"

"No," Ben said and ducked his head to give her a quick kiss and tug on her earlobe. "You can talk to her. I'm going to meditate."

Rey brought a hand up to cover the huge grin stretched across her face.

 

—

"Don't worry," Rey said. She finished recounting the events since their arrival and swift departure from Mustafar.

"Who's worrying?" Leia said as she frowned.

"We've come to an agreement. Ben is going to teach me while we're here and I'm going with him to the First Order to rescue Oona Ren."

Leia's eyebrows shot up. "Whoa, hold your fathiers. Now I'm worried. First, going to the First Order — bad idea. Second, Ben? I hope you know what you're doing."

"You asked me to train with him. What am I supposed to call him? Supreme Leader Kylo Ren? I couldn't. He's — that's not really him."

The diaphanous blue holo-projection of Leia squinted at Rey and Rey hoped like hell Leia's reception was spotty and she couldn't see her blush.

"Can I give you some advice my mother gave me?" Leia asked.

 _Advice?_ Rey's heart leaped. Every bit of wisdom Leia bestowed upon her was a precious gift. "Of course," Rey said.

Leia smiled. "She once told me she hoped my first romance wouldn't be with someone so perfect. That it does a girl good to fall for a scoundrel, now and then. I always wondered what she'd think if she'd known I married one."

"A scoundrel with a heart of gold," Rey said. She had not told Leia that she and Ben kissed — twice now. It didn't seem like something Ben would be eager to share with his mother.

And honestly, she wasn't sure how she felt about Leia's advice. She seemed to encourage a relationship between Rey and her son.

"Han wouldn't want to hear you say it. He'd only do the honorable thing after exhausting all other methods. Except when it came to his son. He always said he'd die to give Ben a better life than the one we've had." Leia's smile went lopsided. "We tried too hard." Then any tears Leia had been trying to hold back came spilling out. She shook as the silent sobs wracked her.

Rey felt her own eyes burning as she yearned to reach out and put her arms around Leia, to help absorb her grief. "I'm so sorry, Leia," Rey said.

"No, it's okay," Leia said. She took in a couple of deep breaths and wiped her face with a handkerchief she pulled out of her pocket. "I haven't allowed myself time to grieve but it creeps up on me from time to time."

Leia paused for a long moment.

"Rey, I want to speak to my son when this is all over. Don't let him die." Her mouth wavered and a tear slid down one cheek. "A mother isn't supposed to outlive her baby," she said in a broken whisper.

She wiped the tear away and tried to smile. "I don't know why or how but I've survived so much loss. I can't bear any more. I know he has done some terrible things. But his father did not give his life in vain. There is still light in him, Rey.  Luke saw it at the end too. I believe in him, in spite of everything."

"You'll talk to him," Rey said. She hoped she could fulfill that promise. She didn't want this to be a lie. Until this moment, she hadn't stopped to consider that this would be a life-or-death mission. She'd escaped the First Order on several occasions at this point and was fairly confident she and Ben would be able to do the same.

Now she wasn't so sure. There was the added complication of the creatures chasing them with the First Order. She had no idea what they were -- what they were up against. She'd fought without the Force for years though, right? She'd always felt a little lucky, but it couldn't have all been an unconscious use of the Force.

"May the Force be with you and Ben. Both of you come back safe, okay?" Leia said before signing off.

Rey stared at the glowing blue beacon in her hand. Tears sprang from her eyes and caught on her lashes. 

 

—

 

Ben slapped at his neck, feeling the tickle of one of the blood-sucking insects inhabiting the swamps of Dagobah. He sat cross-legged on a relatively dry patch of solid ground encircling an ancient tree. He ventured far enough away from the junk ship to be out of view but not far enough he couldn't run back quickly.

He brought his hand down from his neck and curled his lip at the bloody splat in the middle of his palm. He sloshed his hand in the water and looked around. He hadn't brought anything with him. He wiped his palm dry on the outer thigh of his pants.

Ben left his cloak on the ship. The sweltering planet wasn't suited to the thick layers of his uniform. He'd stripped down to his black sleeveless undershirt, suspenders, and pants. Sweat trickled down his temples and the center of his back as he resettled into a cross-legged position and closed his eyes to meditate.

_I feel it all the time. The pull to the light. The pull to the dark. Rey senses it._

Squeezing his eyes closed, Ben focused on visualizing the burned, melted mask of his grandfather.

_Show me the way._

"Hey, kid."

Ben's eyes snapped open and his pulse rocketed. "Luke."

"I told you I'd see you around," said the semi-transparent apparition of Luke Skywalker.

Seething anger boiled up Ben's throat and threatened to choke him on its bitterness. Only his uncle would presume to haunt him from the afterlife.

Luke took a few casual steps around, taking in their surroundings. "Tell me, Ben, what are you doing here?"

"Meditating," Ben bit out.

Luke tilts his head with an annoying half-grin that needles under Ben's skin. "You're afraid. You're seeking balance — center."

"Don't presume to know me, uncle," Ben said, spitting out the last word like venom. "You've already made that mistake once only to force me to prove you right."

Luke raised his hands in surrender. "I failed you. I let your unconscious mind speak for you. Your parents and I kept your grandfather's identity a secret. We always thought there would be a right time to tell you but it never felt right."

"I don't want your platitudes."

"We didn't want to plant seeds of doubt that would lead you on a path to the dark side. In all our caution, we drove you there anyway," Luke continued like he hadn't heard Ben. "Except for Han - Han said you were just a kid being a kid."

Darkness reared in Ben and clawed at his gut. It hadn't kept him from leaving though, had it? Hadn't kept him from getting so frustrated he quit the whole situation.

"He was weak and foolish," Ben said half-heartedly. "I destroyed him."

But his father had been right. Snoke used him as a pawn.

Ben committed the patricide his Master required and it hadn't been enough.

Luke shook his head in empathy. "I know the urge to lash out and regain control. But look inward, Ben. Surrender your desires. Regain your control. Don't let yourself be trapped in the physical world. Allow the Force to guide you without analyzing it." Luke arched an eyebrow at Ben. "If you can. If you allow yourself to be a channel to carry out the will of the Force, you will always be doing the exact right thing."

"You're not my Master and I'm not your Padawan."

"You did outgrow me rather quickly, " Luke admits.

"The old ways of the Jedi and the Sith are irrelevant. Your fear of the dark side warped your teachings," Ben accused. "I've trained in both sides of the Force and there is no dark side as you perceive it. The Force is one. It doesn't take sides. It doesn't care about our petty wars. None of that matters. What you call the dark side is raw, unrestrained power of the Force itself."

Ben hadn't allowed himself to think about it much when under the influence of Snoke, too afraid his Master would hear him and punish him. Snoke encouraged his studies of both sides of the Force but not much free thinking.

The longer he spent with Rey, the less fragmented he felt by the dual sides of himself. He felt the pull in opposite directions but it was becoming less violent.

"You're right," Luke said.

Ben's head shot up and he looked at his uncle in shock.

"What?"

"I equated anger with the dark side and taught my pupils the same."

"This realization is coming a little too late."

A boyish grin spread across Luke's mature face. "Well, you're not all-knowing until you become one with the Cosmic Force." Luke sobered. "You want to bring about a New Order. You're not going to do that by just attacking the things that hurt you. I know we have failed you. If you truly want to end your pain and suffering and all the death these wars have brought to the galaxy, then you must trust in the Force. Only then can you serve it fully."

"Serving the Force so far hasn't done much for me," said Ben. "I don't know if the Force knows what it wants with me."

Luke tsked. "Trust the force. Gain mastery. Complete mastery can be obtained when you learn the art of letting go."

The transparent form faded slowly out of existence leaving Ben alone in the swamp again. When Ben asked his grandfather to show him the way, he hadn't meant for him to send Luke to do the job.

Ben grappled with the feelings shadowing him after the confrontation with Luke on Crait and he hadn't known what to make of them. He half-hoped his uncle had been there to try to save him.

Why had they all waited so long to reach out?

The Force was one and it was wily. Ben didn't know what the Force wanted from him or his family but it seemed as though a blood debt was being extracted from the entire Skywalker family line.

Like the Force would never allow him to be at peace with either half of himself.

 _Stand firm_ a voice told him.

He never heard it before but Ben knew it was his grandfather.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if it's lame for me to admit this, but some parts of this chapter really made me tear up when I wrote them. I think that Ben's relationship with his family is so tragic. My heart hurts for them all. 
> 
> This was another chapter that got away from me so the events I planned for the second half are coming in a separate chapter, hopefully in a few days. Thanks for sticking with me this far!
> 
> This chapter also borrows unrepentantly from James Lucerno's conclusion to the New Jedi Order series — The Unifying Force.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter 12**

"What happened?" Ben said as soon as he stepped into the lounge area of the Falcon.

Rey gaped at him after she looked up from the inactive holochess board.  He had a look like a dark cloud ghosting his eyes. Ben was without his cloak or tunic. Still wearing a sleeveless shirt, he had more on than the time the Force connected them and he'd been shirtless. She hadn't been able to look away for more than a moment then and she didn't even bother trying now.

Dirt clung to the sweat across his brow. His hair was damp and disheveled as if he'd been worrying his fingers through it. With his arms bared, she could see every curve and dip of muscle. Ben clenched his fists which made his bicep bulge. Rey attempted to swallow and found her mouth had gone dry.

Rey didn’t consider herself a superficial person and reassured herself that it was perfectly natural as a fellow warrior, of sorts, to appreciate the training that went into obtaining that much strength.

"Did she say something to you?" he asked, breaking her out of her downward spiral of thoughts.

Ben came closer and somehow that was worse. From her seated position at the holotable he dominated her field of vision and she found it difficult to focus.

He slid along her mind with a light, concerned touch. She had to speak but she was so taken aback by the wave of heat that flooded over her.

_ Had Ben left the hatch door open? Was there a vent leaking hot air? _

"I—no, Leia didn't say anything," Rey stammered. He was so close and warm she could smell him. Water, salt, and something spicy that tickled her nose. Only a little swampy. She tried to swallow again. Hadn't she had a water bottle around here somewhere? She groped blindly at the table, unable to rip her gaze away from him.

"You're unsettled," Ben said. He contemplated her, eyes moving from her face to her chest. Rey struggled to slow her breathing and knocked the metal water bottle off the table. It fell to the floor with a loud clang, causing them both to flinch.

"I should go meditate," Rey said. She got up so fast from her seat she collided with him and bounced off his wide chest. She landed hard on her tailbone on the aged thin padding of the bench seat. "Ow!"

"Sorry," Ben said with a smirk. "So, you're okay?"

"I'm okay." Rey gestured to the dirt smeared across his forehead. "You've just got a little -- there."        

Ben swiped at it but missed completely. Rey stood up and brought the tail of her tunic wrap to rub away the streak. She released the fabric and found herself staring directly into his darkened eyes.

"Thank you," he said, voice husky and low enough urge her defenseless body to fall victim to his gravitational pull. Ben's arms came up around her and he hugged her close to him.  "We should start training," he said into her hair.

She wanted to stay enveloped in his embrace. She sighed into his neck and delighted in the way his arms squeezed tighter around her. "Can't you just let me learn it all from your mind and save ourselves a whole lot of time? Like we did on Mustafar with piloting?"

"We could do that, but we still need to train. Just because you've read the book or had the lesson doesn't mean you have the polish of practice."

"I had your muscle memory on the Falcon. It was effortless," Rey protested.

"Yes, because our connection was open and you already had experience flying the ship. That was easier," Ben said. "It's not going to be the same with these Force abilities or the lightsaber combat forms you need to learn."

Rey pulled away and glowered at him. "I'll have you know, I know how to fight." She trailed a finger down the scar on his face. "I gave you this."

He held her hand in place and his mind was unguarded against her. "Take what you want and let's see if you're right."

 

* * *

 

Rey tripped, her foot caught in a muddy hole and grasped for something to catch her balance.  If she had been paying more attention, she wouldn't have stumbled, but she was so distracted by everything around them as she and Ben hiked further into the swampland.

She wished she had a datapad or a notebook — anything that she could catalog all of this in. As full of life as the planet was with all the animal sounds echoing around them, there didn't seem to any advanced lifeforms. Had anyone ever explored here before with intent of documenting for future travelers?

Ben glanced back at her but seeing that she was already hauling herself back up on a set of thick vines hanging from the trees, turned back and resumed his course.

"Why exactly did we need to come out this far?" Rey said through her teeth as she tried wiping some of the mud off her pants. It was a futile gesture. As much as she was enjoying observing everything, her aching body protested.

Rey's childish version of a survival guide had been one of the things to be left behind on her quick escape from Jakku. But maybe it was actually helping someone. Wasn't that the reason she'd made it in the first place? Maybe one day, once all of this was done, she could come back and make a survival guide for Dagobah.

Something flew out of the treetops at a dive and screeched as it flew by Rey's head. She yelped as she ducked down to avoid getting hit by the creature. Similar birdlike creatures answered its screaming call through the trees, sending an eerie chorus through the darkening swamp.

As the day crept to night, the ground carpeted with thick, white fog that looked like snow the first time Rey saw it. But it was weightless and ephemeral, unlike the cold, hard packed snow she remembered from Starkiller base.

Rey had her new lightsaber clipped to her belt but her trusty staff from Jakku remained in her hand. The staff was better suited to help her navigate the unfamiliar terrain and swipe the heavy vines hanging from the trees out of her path.

The distinct perfume of impending rain filtered through the foliage. It was earthy and warm and Rey almost stopped to close her eyes and drink it in but Ben tugged on the rope of their bond, yanking her out of the moment.

"You're getting side-tracked," Ben called back to her. He was so far ahead now she couldn't make him out in the increasing nightfall. With the trees blocking the horizon, night fell rapidly, without the warning of pink and orange-tinged clouds on the horizon. "We don't have time for daydreams. The sooner we get off this slimy mud hole, the better."

"You're the one who insisted we come here," Rey said under her breath, knowing he would hear her anyway. But she was a little offended on behalf of the innocent, albeit wild, planet.

Tracking Ben through the Force, she pushed her way through some low-hanging, spongy moss and found him waiting in a small clearing. His legs were set wide and his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for her.

The swamp around them descended into an unsettling silence. As if they were being watched and observed. Rey could only sense the primitive lifeforms of the creatures around them but the Force itself felt attentive to the moment.

"Now are you going to tell me the reason we had to come out this far?" said Rey.

The air grew dense and drizzling rain fell from the sky.

"You're going to fight me all the way back to that junk bucket," said Ben. He unclipped his lightsaber and gave it a twirl, tossing the hilt from hand to hand. "Let's see what you can do with that new lightsaber. And the new forms you learned since you don't think you need to practice."

Rey huffed. "And you couldn't prove your point  _ closer _ to the Falcon? Look, it's about to start pouring!" She threw a hand up toward the sky.

The rain responded to her statement with a resounding crack of lightning in the distance as the clouds opened up above them. Rain came down in thick sheets, soaking both of them immediately.  

The corners of Ben's lips turned up into a wry grin. "Is that going to affect your ability to perform, scavenger?" He threw out his right arm in tandem with his right leg, widening his stance further as his lightsaber ignited with a loud  _ snap-hiss _ . The rain hitting it sizzled off into vapor.

Rey unfastened her lightsaber and activated both blades. Twin lasers in a lighter cerulean shade of blue blazed from the hilt. The light bathed the small clearing, making it feel like a dreamy, underwater illusion.

Ben lifted his lightsaber up parallel to the ground in a two-handed grip, just under his eye level, sighting her as if he was looking through the crosshair of a scope. Then the current of their bond cinched closed and she lost her connection to him. She shivered at the emptiness he left.

He stalked toward her, the red glow of his blade flickering in the rain. Rey's hackles rose as her instincts prompted her to  _ run _ . She squelched the notion and brought her lightsaber up in a variation of the opening stance of Form VII she'd learned from Ben's mind. She held the hilt up with both hands above her head one end of the lightsaber angled into the sky and the other pointing toward the ground. She twisted her body and tensed waiting for the right moment to strike.

Ben's brute physicality was on full display in the downpour but Rey had fought off more than her fair share of opponents who surpassed her in physical strength. It didn't distract her from trying to remember the rest of the vague moves of the form. It had been one of the less detailed memories of Ben's, but that meant it also had the most room for improvisation.

He was close enough now that he swung his saber a few times in front of him, testing her reaction. She darted towards him and feinted to the right before whirling into a running jump to the tree to her left. She couldn't use her lightsaber like her staff to plant into the ground and launch herself up to it. So she leapt straight towards the tree, reaching up to grasp a hanging vine, and swung into the tree trunk. She hit it feet first. Bouncing back, the momentum threw her into an arc away from the tree.

Her body cut through hanging moss, slowing her down, but she still managed to time letting go of the vine to come crashing down behind him. It had taken him almost as long to switch directions as it had for her to finish her tree stunt. Rey jabbed one end of her saberstaff toward him, the energy blade stopping a mere hairsbreadth away from the cloth of his undershirt.

Rey smirked at Ben and flipped backward onto a big root before taking off at a run through the swamp back towards the Falcon. "Oh, I'll fight you," she yelled over her shoulder. "But you're going to have to catch me first."

The swamp was filled with natural obstacles. Fog covered the treacherous ground, making every step an experiment in disaster. Would you land on solid ground? A slippery mud hole? Trip over a root? Or worse yet, it could be a step into the edge of the vast river that wound its way hidden through the swamp.

Curtains of moss blanketed the trees along with the tendrils of vines, making it so Rey had to use her saberstaff to cut through it or else be slapped in the face with the vegetation. Maybe Ben didn't realize it, even after he'd been in her head, but she was the one with the advantage here. Her whole life had been a series of life-or-death obstacle courses.

Rey learned very early in her childhood not to get attached to the friends she made. Trying to survive by looting the best salvage from the destroyed warships on Jakku hadn't worked out for everyone.

Ben crashed through the swamp behind her, not bothering to hide. He was gaining on her quicker than she anticipated. Rey risked a glance back to check his progress. She had never seen him do it. But now she observed him channeling the Force with his movements, turning his bulky body into an into a finely tuned instrument. He jumped gracefully over the roots and sliced his lightsaber through anything hanging down from the trees to obscure his vision of his prey. And he moved fast, fleet of foot even through the unknown terrain beneath the fog that only grew thicker in the rain.

Pulse quickening, Rey wrenched herself around. With him that close, she did not have time to stop and see what he was doing. The thought panicked her enough that she faltered, and stepped into a patch of fog that ended up being purely water. She fell forward and was completely submerged.

The clothes she was wearing were already heavy from the rain and she started to sink, water closing in over her head. Rey pinwheeled her arms and legs, trying to push herself up. Or to where she thought up was.

A hand grabbed a fistful of the back of her tunic and hauled her out of the water. She sputtered and coughed before rolling away from Ben, who had paused in his pursuit to crouch down next to her.

"You're thinking too much," he said. "Remember in the throne room? I felt it when you surrendered yourself to the Force. You need to do that now. The Force is not your weapon to wield. You are the Force's weapon. Let yourself become an extension of it rather than trying to bend it to your will. If you have to concentrate on specifics so hard, then you're doing it wrong. It's too easy for you to lose your awareness. Your feet would have guided you away from that misstep."

Rey inhaled deeply and tried to absorb his advice, but now not only was she drenched, but she reeked. Her inhale turned into another cough.

Ben stood from his crouch and held his hand out to her.  She took it and he pulled her up, only to turn her immediately into a chokehold from behind. "Get of out this," he whispered in her ear.

Her lightsaber turned off when she fell into the water but she didn't need it to escape him. "I thought we were doing this to practice lightsaber combat not wrestling," she griped. Ben's forearm was firm against her neck but didn't restrict her breathing. If anything, the majority of her discomfort came from the fact that the front of his body was pressed against her back. Or rather, the discomfort was that she enjoyed the contact but knew he wasn't going to like her solution to breaking out of it.

This was muscle memory for her. Maybe he hadn't wanted to pay attention to those memories when he'd been in her head — there hadn't been time for him to see everything anyway. But this was a maneuver she'd learned from the oldest human female she knew on Jakku. She didn't know the woman's name, but she sat across from her often enough at the salvage cleaning stations and they'd struck up a conversation a time or two.

The old woman had called it the  _ "Choobie Cruncher." _

Her body was relaxed against his, so he didn't expect it when she took her hands off his arm across her throat and reached back to grab and pull — though not to cause pain like she did to the lecherous scavengers of Jakku — at Ben's so-called "choobies."

Just the threat of what Rey  _ almost _ did was enough to send Ben jumping back with a yelp, but Rey had already grabbed his right arm, holding his unlit lightsaber hilt, and twisted it behind his back. She forced his whole torso to hunch down and she leaned on the back of his shoulders. His head bent so far down she could feel his hair brushing against the inside of her thigh.

She released him quickly and sprang back, pressing the button to activate her saberstaff.

Ben straightened and did the same but with a wicked grin. "I should have been expecting that from a scrapper like you." In a past iteration of herself, she might have taken it as an insult, but even without the insight of his feelings from their bond, she could hear the admiration infusing his words.

"You underestimated me," she said, circling him. "Maybe I should chase you back to the Falcon."

He struck like a viper, leaping out towards her to close the distance. The blade of his lightsaber swung past her stomach as she jumped back. He had been so close she'd felt the heat just over her navel.

Ben brought his blade up again and she released her awareness to the Force and her hands swung up, bringing the top blade of her staff up to block his attack. They grappled, blades locked and Ben pushed her back, sending her boots sliding in the mud. The Force guided her through the forms imprinted in her mind and she leveraged her saber against his, twisting until she escaped the lock of blades and dashed away.

Blood pumping, she sped through the swamp with the grace of the Force guiding her this time. She didn't look back to see where Ben was, only faintly aware of him behind her as she jumped from exposed roots to fallen logs. Soon she was going so fast the world around her faded into a blur.

Then it was a rapid descent of a blur as she fell into a pit that had somehow escaped her notice. One moment she'd been ready to curve around a cold, gnarled old tree, the next she hurtled straight towards it and before she collided with the trunk, she fell.

After she picked herself up out of the dirt, she listened for Ben but heard nothing from above. Then she took in her surroundings. It was a long, tunneling cave beneath the old tree. Whiskery roots grew through the earthen walls. Rey shuddered at the chill permeating the subterranean earth and the energy of the Force pooled beneath the tree.

_ Is this the cave Ben was talking about? _

She hadn't come to this cave seeking answers. If anything, she didn't want to have anything to do with dark side caves and the cryptic answers they offered. She continued down the tunnel, searching for another way out. Rey kept one hand on the wall to keep herself rooted in reality, and the other clenched her ignited staff that lit her way in the darkness.

Then Ben stepped out of a darkened tunnel to her left. Only it wasn't him, was it? He wore his long cloak and mask. His body bowed forward slightly in a predatory curve as he stalked toward her, red lightsaber glowing blood-red in the damp underground. He slashed his lightsaber across the space between them without restraint. The blade burned through the tail of her wraps as she turned and ran back the way she came down the tunnel, willing her feet to carry her as fast as humanly possible.

_ This is the cave. It isn't real. _

She stopped running and held her ground, turning to face the unreal Kylo Ren hunting her through the darkness. "I'm not afraid of you! I know you," she roared at the apparition.

"You do?" it questioned, and the voice coming out of the vocoder slithered down her spine with the gentle malice laced in the words. " _ Ah _ , you do." It was foul the way this specter took his words and perverted them into something sinister.

Rey swung wildly with her saberstaff, forgetting everything her Ben had said about surrendering to the Force. This shadow version of him made her blood run cold. She stumbled over a rock and cursed as she landed on her rear. Rey braced herself on her elbows as the shadow Kylo Ren loomed over her and pointed the tip of his saber under her chin.

"When the time comes, you'll be the one to turn," he said. And unlike when her Ben said it in the turbolift on their way to confront Snoke, this Kylo Ren mimicked the phrase as a threat. A warning.

"Rey!" Ben's voice shouted down the opening of the cave at the base of the tree. His voice was ragged and hoarse. Rey looked up and saw the faint light coming through the hole and finally noticed the rain falling on her head. When she swung her gaze back to the apparition, it had vanished.

"I'm here," Rey called up, voice breaking over the last word.

Ben's arm thrust down through the hole and she reached up to clasp his hand. He grunted and pulled her up out of the cave. Once she was back on the surface, she knocked some of the dirt from her clothes and tried to steady her breath and not think about how the whole thing felt like she'd just been resurrected from the grave.

She swallowed thickly. "Well, I found the dark cave," she tried to say with nonchalance.

Ben's eyebrows came down. "What did you see?" His big hands rested on her shoulders, a comforting weight.

"You," Rey said. "Kylo Ren." She brought her hands up to rest on top of his. "I don't want to talk about it."

His frown intensified and his eyes searched hers but she had already set to calm her emotions. He dropped it. "We were almost back to the ship anyway. We can call it a day," he said gently. Ben released her shoulders but tucked one of her hands into his and tugged her back to the Falcon.

Rey looked up at him from the corner of her eye and tried to sense what he felt. Was he disappointed in the so-called training activity? Was he disappointed she didn't tell him what happened in the cave?

He still had the connection between them cinched closed, so she couldn't tell beyond all the worst-case scenarios she seemed hell-bent on forcing herself to consider, rather than the more rational options.

They approached the Falcon and Ben opened the hatch. Ved met them as they trudged inside, dripping water and mud all over the floor.

"First, you disappear for hours and second, you come in and make such a mess!" exclaimed the droid. "I'll have you know that I have yet to locate a mop aboard this decrepit ship."

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not mean to go this long without updating! But I did finally find a couple of beta readers, so I've been working really hard to go back and clean up my earlier chapters. I'm hoping to have revised versions of those posted by the next update with Chapter 13, so stay tuned for that. There won't be any significant changes, but hopefully, it will be better! 
> 
> And this chapter... well, I had to really wring it out of myself.
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me this far!


	13. Chapter Thirteen

** Chapter Thirteen **

The temperature controls kicked on and the air blowing out of the vents cooled the small droplets of water that still clung to Rey's skin. Getting dry after bathing on Jakku had never been a problem. Not getting to bathe on Jakku was the problem.

Her hair curled damply on her neck, still wet from her shower. Ben insisted she go first while he tracked down a mop for Ved. The droid complained at length regarding the lack of cleaning supplies on board the ship. The seemingly valid complaint made Ben duck his head from Rey's view. That didn't hide the bob of his throat or his clenched, white knuckles.

"I think this will work," Rey said, settling down on a seat in the lounge area. "I'm sorry we didn't have everything we needed for a full oil bath." With a full spray bottle of oil and an old rag, Rey improvised, giving Ved the droid version of a sponge-bath.

"That's quite alright. Though this ship should really be better stocked. I interfaced with the ship's computer earlier and it agreed with me."

Rey raised her eyebrows. "The ship agreed with you?"

"She was quite adamant that droid workers receive equal rights and access to supplies," Ved said. "Quite an interesting concept."

Rey smiled. "I agree with her."

She and Ved worked together testing all his moving parts for those that needed care. Ved was mostly quiet as they worked, leaving her mind at peace. The steady drum of rain on the exterior of the Falcon played in the background of her awareness and she hummed to herself.

Rey hummed to distract herself from thinking about the dark cave's vision of Kylo Ren. Dark side wellsprings of power didn't necessarily give you answers you wanted, much less a straight one.

But the vision fed the part of her that doubted. Remaining hopeful was the only way she survived on Jakku, but as her experiences grew, the more disappointments she accrued.

Patricide haunted Ben. He confronted the ghosts of his father every moment he spent in the Falcon. Rey didn't want to empathize with that pain. She understood it, because, in a way, she understood Ben. Her anger at Ben for killing Han dimmed as he opened himself up to her. Or maybe it changed into something else.

_Despair?_

Ben robbed her of the father figure she'd just begun to know. He'd taken all the love Han offered and threw it back in his face. Wasted that love with the disregard of someone who grew up in security. No, he wasn't a boy who spent his nights counting tally marks carved into metal. Touching each score in prayer for a family that was never coming.

Ben realized too late what he'd done. And it shattered him.

Rey couldn't let him do that with his mother. Leia, like Han, just wanted Ben to come home. They wanted him whole and with them. Leia wanted to see her son when this was all over?

Rey vowed to bring him back.

It was the only way to keep the dark cave's vision from coming true. The only way to keep Ben from going back to being Kylo Ren.

"Ved, what do you know of Ben's father?" Rey asked as she wiped excess oil off of one of the droid's finger joints.

"I'm sorry, Mistress Rey, but very little, I'm afraid. I have never met the man and Master Kylo doesn't speak of him."

Rey used the Force to listen for the sound of the refresher running over the loud rain outside. The rush of water in the room a few wall panels over continued. "Does he talk to you when he's at the castle?"

"Not often. I see to his needs. In the beginning, he had a few questions about his grandfather, but they've ceased."

"Darth Vader," said Rey. She'd put the pieces together earlier, not realizing the big, bad castle she'd come to initially had belonged to Darth Vader himself. "Did Darth Vader know he had a grandchild?"

"Oh no," said Ved. "He died before Master Kylo was born."

"I wonder what he would have thought of Ben," said Rey. "Trying to follow in his footsteps."

The mechanical whir of Ved turning his head towards her was audible at such a close distance. "He would not have been pleased."

"Wha-what?" Rey said, eyebrows coming together.

"He would not have wanted his grandson to serve a master as he did," said Ved. "Master Vader never said so, but I knew him best of all." Ved thrust his gleaming achromatic metal chest out like he considered his entirety a trophy of his master's affection. "He grew weary of his stagnation under his master. As much as he embraced the anger that granted him his power, he regretted his past."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"His most-watched holo," said Ved. When Rey raised her eyebrows at him, urging him to continue, Ved's eyes flashed and projected an image a few feet in front of him. The holo depicted a human couple in hazy shades of blue. The normally grainy quality of the holo morphed into a lense of romanticism and their bright happiness radiated from their faces.

"Has Ben seen this?" Rey whispered. She hardly dared break the spell of the moment. The light and static from the holo in combination with the percussive rain hitting the ship transformed the projection into a surreal dream.

"No," Ved said quietly.

The young man had a bold smile and sat with his arm slung around a much smaller woman. The woman's hair was arranged in an elaborate style with ornate pins and she held herself with poise despite the pregnant stomach she cradled.

"Hello, little Skywalkers," said the young man. "Your mother and I wanted to make a quick message for the two of you."

The woman's eyes darted up to her lover's face with a hesitant smile and she smoothed her hand over her stomach before looking back into the camera. "You two will be born into a galaxy divided but your father and I are working hard to make sure you grow up in a peaceful galaxy."

Rey squinted at the young man. His hair was long like Ben's and he had the same steady gaze. "Is that—?"

"That's Master Vader," confirmed Ved.

Rey gaped. _Darth Vader — handsome? In love?_

The bedtime stories told to little orphans in a post-Empire galaxy frequently made use of the threat of the demonic Darth Vader spiriting away naughty children.

His humanity startled Rey. Darth Vader — she still struggled to connect the name to the man on the holo — put his hand on top of the woman's on her rounded belly. He gazed at her like she was the only person who mattered.

Vader looked back to the holorecorder and addressed his future children.  "Don't worry. We'll make everything right before you get here."

The woman's laughter tinkled as she leaned into him. Ved supplied the woman's name as Padme Amidala. Ben's grandmother told the Skywalker twins about the family lake home on Naboo, where she and Anakin got married. Padme's eyes shone as she shared her dreams of raising her family in peace on her home planet.

Padme smiled like a brilliant, dying star. "Just know, no matter what, that we love you, truly, deeply."

The holorecording shut off and Rey drifted back into reality. _Darth Vader in love. Darth Vader excited about becoming a father._ The thoughts cycled in her head along with the tragic smile of Ben's grandmother. Padme delighted in the impending arrival of their children, but faint circles were visible under her eyes even in the poorly rendered holo.

Rey thanked Ved for sharing the recording with her and continued her ministrations to his neglected maintenance.

 

* * *

 

 

Ben smoothed a hand over his hair when Rey lifted her eyebrows at the dried and tamed tresses. Civilized hair and savage planets didn't have to be mutually exclusive.

"Feel better?" she asked.

"I typically do after removing a layer of sludge."

She exhaled a soft laugh that jabbed like her staff through his gut. Ben battled the pathetic reenactment of a moth drawn to a flame he performed in her presence. And won. Barely.

_Would it be a strength or a weakness to have her stand by my side?_

He asked himself the same question over and over again since meeting Rey.

Snoke seized any tenderness and dug his fingers in until it bruised and turned to ugly weakness. Ben's world collapsed when he tried to reconcile his murder of his father. How he could forgive himself? How anyone could forgive him? He'd taken that final step to becoming the monster Snoke molded.

He'd been another one of Snoke's puppets.

Ben cut those strings with a flick of his fingers. Now he had to live with his past choices and reconcile them with the future.

The future he wanted was with the sun-kissed girl in front of him. She sat back against the worn patent leather of the semi-circle seating around the Dejarik board table.

His eyes traced her face, willing every line and shadow to imprint to his mind. If he just focused on her face, the backdrop of the Falcon would disappear.

Rey smiled at him but it was watery and unsure. She was mercurial, and with their bond quiet, he couldn't begin to discern the inconstancy of her sentiments towards him. This felt like pity. The way her smile only reached half of her lips, one corner curved down in a frown.

His mind raced to present reasons for the pity. _What had she seen in the cave? Was it the ship? We need to ditch the ship._

Either way, he didn't want her pity. It was an anemic, maudlin emotion.

Ben never agreed with the Jedi tenet to have no attachments but he became increasingly aware of the reasons behind it. Forming attachments, particularly ones of deep affection, restrained one's ability to realize full power. They would always be held back by their loved ones. Look what happened when Ben left the First Order on a foolish errand to find Rey.

"What's wrong?" asked Rey.

He worked hard to conceal his emotions from Snoke, only to let them out in relative privacy. Rey read him in plain Basic even when he thought his apathetic mask was firmly in place.

"Nothing," said Ben. "Tell me what happened in the cave."

Rey patted the cushion of the seat next to her at the table. "Ved's making us something to eat," she said.

Ben sat but narrowed his eyes at her. She slid a little farther away to accommodate his sprawl. "Stop avoiding the question, Rey," he said. "You told me what happened last time."

Mouth twisting, Rey said, "That was different. I know what to expect from those visions now. Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it? Last time you came to me crying."

"I'm not crying now, am I?"

Ben rolled his lower lip and bit down it until it hurt. "Will you at least tell me why you don't want to tell me?" Training under Snoke might have been easier than winning Rey's trust. He swallowed, the words he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

Rey shifted in her seat. "It showed me your past self."

Ben's eyes narrowed at her, searching her face. "Ben Solo?"

Her wide-eyed expression veered into a frown. "No. Kylo Ren." Another punch of her hypothetical staff into his stomach.

"Here's your supper," Ved said. Neither Rey nor Ben spared a glance for the plates of food as he set them down. Steam tickled Ben's nose and his eyes remained locked on Rey's. Ved dropped the eating utensils onto the table with the sharp scratch of metal on metal. "Oh very well," Ved huffed. "But I will be watching you two! Googly eyes are permissible but… Keep your hands on the table."

Ben broke the staring contest first and glared at Ved. "Out!" he ordered.

Rey glowered at Ben before turning a more sympathetic look to Ved, who was backing out of the room. "Thank you for the food, Ved," she said. After Ved left the room, Rey turned her attention back to Ben. "You are incredibly rude to droids."

"You wouldn't be so fond of them either if you'd been nearly assassinated by a _kitchen_ droid as a child."

Rey's lips flattened. "Seems like a good reason to be nice to them."

Ben heaved a sigh that came out more like a growl. Rey put her hand to his face and pushed back a lock of hair that fell over his forehead. Cool, gentle fingertips soothed his brow while her eyes stormed into his. Thoughts coalesced below the surface and he longed to pry open their connection so he could hear them.

But then she would be able to hear him, too.

"Why don't I tell you about my conversation with your mother?" she offered.

He closed his hand around hers still fussing through his hair. "That doesn't mean we won't be finishing the conversation about the cave." Rey's dark eyes met his and a glassy reflection of himself stared back from the frame of her eyelashes. Unable to look directly at it, he turned his face into her hand. He pulled it until his lips made contact and pressed a lingering kiss on the center of her palm.

She shivered and her fingers curled against his cheek. Ben let go of her hand and drew away. But.. maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to distract her right now. He didn't particularly want to talk about his mother. Not when he had Rey all to himself.

"Are you a ladies' man, Ben Solo?" Rey accused, holding her hand to her heart.

Heat flooded his cheeks and the tops of his ears burned. " _What?"_ he croaked. _Why would she —?_

She blushed too. "That was just…. very... " she snapped her mouth closed. Rey rested her head in her hands and shook it. "You've gotten me off topic!"

He smirked. His experience was inconsequential if he was effective.  

Rey straightened in her seat and braced herself. If it looked like her staff had been shoved up her— well — he probably wasn't going to like what she said.

"Your mother said something that struck me as a little odd," said Rey. Ben didn't react. _Odd? A Skywalker?_ "It was almost like she was encouraging me to be with you. Not just with you on a mission. _With you_." Rey's eyes rounded and she wrinkled her nose as she beleaguered the point. "She said it did a girl good to fall for a scoundrel now and then."

 _Whump_. She might as well have cracked him over the head with her staff. Ben flinched and blinked rapidly, refusing the tears that burned the back of his eyes. _Did she know Rey would tell me exactly what she said? Did she aim this jab?_

"Listening to her would be a mistake." Ben scowled and worked his jaw. No, he shouldn't say more. He couldn't trust himself to say the right thing. Not after Snoke's throne room when everything had come out impossibly wrong.

A deep frown settled over Rey's face. "She cares about you, Ben. She wants to see you when this is all over."

"No." A knee-jerk response, the thought echoed in his mind and out of his mouth at the same time.

"No? Just no?" Rey said, voice rising.

"No. I don't want to see her."

"But—why not? Snoke is dead. You're wanted by the First Order." Rey stared at him and he didn't need their bond open to feel the frustration building in her. "She wants to see you. She misses you."

Ben looked down at the table. _It's too late for that._ _Han was too late. Luke was too late. Leia wasn't going to be the exception._

"Nothing? That gets nothing out of you?" Rey erupted. "She _loves_ you. You have a mother who loves you and you don't even want to _try_?" Her face mottled red and her eyes were wet. Her chest rose and fell with deep, rage-filled breaths.

Silence. Silence had been the wrong move this time. Damned if he spoke and damned if he didn't. But he didn't know what to say. Nothing he could think of would appease her.

"It's not as simple as you think."

"It is simple. It's the simplest thing in the galaxy. You have someone who loves you despite everything you've done and you won't _see_ her?" Rey relinquished her end of their connection and pure heartbreak slashed into him. Ben held tight on his end of the bond, enduring wave after wave of anguish. Rey hurtled images of herself as a child waiting, starving and alone. "You have someone who loves you." Her voice broke.

"You don't know everything, Rey. It's not as simple as that. You think you know, but you don't!" Ben slammed his fist down on the table, the shock reverberating pain up his arm. "This is her last attempt at a pathetic crusade to get me to turn back to the light. It. Is. Not. Happening."

Rey crumpled in on herself and slouched away from him. Her sunny face leached of color and her end of their connection snapped shut.

"Don't tell me you thought the two of you would turn me back?"

"Is that so bad?" said Rey, lower lip trembling, Ben was torn between kissing it, comforting her, and disgust at her response.

Ben stood up and held his arms tight against his sides. "There is no going back! I am who I am, Rey. Accept me as I am. You knew who I was when you got into this. You don't get to act surprised and play the victim. This isn't about light or dark." He motioned between the two of them. "It was just supposed to be about you and me."

A quick spin of his wrist and his lightsaber would be in his hand, hissing for a fight. If there was a ship he wanted to lose his temper on, it would be the Falcon. _She wasn't listening_.

"I don't know how this is supposed to work if you don't —"

"Don't what? What do you think I am? A monster? Right? A murderous snake?"

"No, I don't think you're a monster," she rasped. "I would have never trusted you. Never came to you on the Supremacy. Ben, I _trusted_ you."

"And did I betray you? No. You betrayed _me_ , Rey. I—I offered you everything I had and you didn't even dignify it with a response. Then you left me. Why didn't you just _kill_ me?"

"I could never — "

Ben snarled in frustration and held back from punching out to the left to destroy the transduristeel wall panel. _This is wrong. This is not how this was supposed to go._

Rey's voice was so small it punctured his lungs and there was suddenly no air to breathe. "You knew I couldn't accept. Not like that. But don't worry. I won't be asking anything else of you."

She gripped the side of the table and pulled so that she slid out the other end of the bench seat. Avoiding him. Maybe he had been wrong and she was just like the rest of them. Only willing to accept him for what he could be. Not what he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, please don't be mad at me.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a brief warning, this chapter will have some torture in it. It's not excessively graphic, but if that's not your thing, just skip past the middle section between the two lines.

**Chapter Fourteen**

The bed in the captain's quarters looked comfortable when she came in, but Rey spent at least a quarter of an hour flopping around on the Kajak hair-lined mattress. Lumpy with age, the mattress was more a series of squishy craters.

Ben and his freakishly long legs would have a hard time squeezing into the bunk in the guest quarters. _Good. I hope he gets leg cramps_.

Eyes hot and tired from crying, she decided to close them and lay on her back — the least offensive position she'd found. Why did she keep assuming the wrong thing when it came to Ben? Why wouldn't he want to reconcile with his mother? With _Leia Organa_? — Probably the greatest humanitarian in the galaxy.

A soft knock rapped at the door before it slid open. Ben loomed in the doorway. He looked way too composed. Rey pinched her eyes closed again. "Go away. I don't want to talk to you right now." It was a weak protest with no feeling behind it. Their conversation had not gone the way she thought it would and it was eating her up inside like a rusting ion engine.

"I have your dinner."

Rey didn't open her eyes but the clatter of the dented metal plate on a small table filled the room. She flinched.

"You have to be hungry," said Ben. His shadow fell over her eyelids. Rey wanted to drag her eyes open and look into his but it felt like she was covered in sand, too heavy to move. He didn't sound angry and some of the sand blew away, leaving her just a little lighter.

Ben told her before that Han would have disappointed her as a father. Apparently, he thought the same thing about his mother. For the life of her, Rey just couldn't see it. Leia nurtured Rey in a way no one ever had. Han listened to her — made her feel confident and capable. Weren't those all the things a child could wish for from their parents? If they did that for a random desert scavenger, Rey could only imagine the love Ben received from them.

Rey's stomach growled louder than an angry rancor in the small room. Ben's low chuckle curled through the air and into her ears. It was almost as bad as a shock from a coupling motivator. A zap from one of those that wasn't completely dead when attempting to salvage any hyperdrive components had been a regular occurrence on Jakku. The shudder of electricity was unmistakable.

The mattress sank near her feet and her eyes flew open. Ben perched on the edge of the bed and stared at the floor. Sighing, he glanced at her as he rubbed one of his large hands down his scared face. The scratch of his light five o'clock shadow rasped against this palm.

"I know how important the idea of a family is to you," Ben said slowly, the words dripping out of his mouth like his mother's favorite honey.  He gulped and his Adam's apple bobbed. "But can you please try to understand I am not ready to see my mother? What can I possibly say to her?" He met Rey's eyes again and they were bloodshot and glistening. "Hi, mom. Sorry I killed dad?" His voice cracked and Rey broke with it.  

"Maybe you don't have to say anything."

He lifted heavy-lidded eyes to study her. "Will that work with you?"

Rey sat up and put her hand out for his, palm up on the mattress. "You can show me. I just… can't imagine."

Kylo's mouth twisted. "What, you think I just ended up this way because I'm evil?" He put his hand into hers.

"No, you're not evil. And you have to admit — your parents aren't bad people."

"They aren't bad people. I don't hate them. They're great people but they were horrible parents. What good is it to take care of the galaxy when you don't take care of your own family? I wasn't joking when I said I was almost killed by a kitchen droid," Ben said darkly.

"Then what happened?"

Ben's hand tightened around Rey's and he let his mental barriers fall for the first time since they'd started their duel in the swamp. Scalding sand conducted a passionless heat but his hand in hers, without any of his feelings hidden, overheated her system as easily as if she were a binary droid.

He swept Rey away from the memory he held of her in the front his mind. She caught a glimpse of it though — she saw herself from the vantage of his height. She looked up at him in the memory, the bright lights of the turbolift glowing behind her. His memory exaggerated the flitting light and dark across her face. Ben's eyes lingered on her lips. He couldn't kill one more thing he cared about in service to Snoke.

It vanished into a wisp as he pulled her through his mind to the memories he wanted her to see. She followed him reluctantly. Ben as a half-asleep toddler watching his father sleep through dark eyelashes. Running down a hallway with Han's golden dice being chased by an indignant household droid. Han calling him Little Star Fighter, running him around the gardens behind their house so he could pretend to be flying a Y-Wing.

Leia holding him close. He was still small enough to fit in her lap. She knew the secret language that dad couldn't hear. She soothed the shadow that crept into his mind leaving him restless, inconsolable, angry. His father's hurt face when he realized he could never comfort Ben like Leia. Ben didn't want to disappoint his father and resisted the voice in his head but it was hard. Han went away more often and then started staying away longer and longer. He grew old enough for Leia to rely more and more on school and a droid to care for her son while she helped Mon Mothma shape the galaxy.

A memory sharpened out of the blur Ben sped her through. He was old enough to know when he was being talked about behind closed doors. His parents, who were never around, whispered their worries. Those whispers escalated to hushed yells that still had the volume to carry through the door without Ben leaning in to hear. They didn't know what to do with him. Ben was too angry. Why was he so sullen, irritable? His parents discussed him like he was an aberration. Like he was turning into a monster. He was desperate for them to understand he just wanted them to be there.

It felt pathetic and weak to need their attention so badly. The voice in his head taunted him for his dependence.

Ben yanked her out of the moment and memories flew by her at a rate that made it impossible to understand what she was seeing and hearing. She could assume what happened from there knowing about Luke and the Jedi temple. Ben didn't want her to see his apprenticeship with Snoke. It was a sinister blur of pain, adrenaline, deep despair, excitement, hunger, and loneliness.

The whiplash of feelings gave the illusion of spinning until she was sitting in Ben's TIE Silencer. She felt Leia through the Force. Leia was worried for Ben. She wasn't angry. Ben's finger was on the trigger but he couldn't press it. He was shattered moments later when his wingmate fired on the _Raddus_. Then his mother was gone from the Force.

Pushed out of his mind, Rey refocused on reality and Ben's face hovering in front of hers. His eyebrows knitted together and his lips pressed tight.

Rey opened her mouth to speak but it was so dry she couldn't get any words out. None of the moments she'd observed had been a dramatic rending of family.  Not like the moment that defined her relationship with her parents. Just a young girl screaming, "Come back!" into the glaring sky. Their ship disappeared in the haze of heat distorting the horizon. Her relationship with her parents ended with a nightmarish finality when they left her in the hands of Unkar Plutt. It wasn't the same as the incremental devastation of a boy she saw in Ben's memories.

She closed her mouth and swallowed before trying again. "I'm sorry." She shook her head. "After I left you on the Supremacy, I promised myself it was up to you to redeem yourself, however that would happen. It had to be a choice freely made. I suppose… being around you, allowing myself to care for you, let me think I had the right to push you. As it stands right now though, you're still on that path," her voice was firm even if her eyes were soft.

A smile curled both corners of Ben's mouth that transformed his striking face into a handsome one. "I'm not the same since I met you, Rey. I never will be."

Rey stared at him. "You—what does that mean?"

Ben used her hand in his to reel her in towards him. Only the faintest hint of pink at the tips of his ears peeked out of his thick hair, contrasting the smooth confidence of his action. In a blink, she was across the bed, nearly in his lap.

"It means I find myself wanting to be a better man. Maybe it's not about letting things die… rather, letting them grow."

"The dark and the light?" Rey asked, making the words as undemanding as she could.

"Yes," he conceded shortly. "But that's not just what this is about." He cleared his throat and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. The bond vibrated between them with mild frustration. "You need me to say it plainly." He chewed on the words some more. "You said my mother wanted us to 'be together.' I want that too. I have wanted it. That's what I meant when I asked you to join me."

Rey raised her eyebrows even though her heart thundered in her chest and heat flooded her body. It blistered as quickly as if she'd laid out on the sands of the Goazon Badlands under the glare of the midday sun. "Hmm.. not sure that's clear enough," she teased.

His lips brushed against her ear and his nose nudged her cheek until she turned her face to his. Rey sensed his anticipation through their open bond. Ben's gaze lingered on her lips, his own parting slightly.

Rey could only look back with eyes she hoped reflected the thousands of yeses she wanted to shout. Fate or the Force conspired against them. A discontented snarled erupted from Rey's belly at the same time her binary beacon began strobing an alert for an incoming message.

It was a recorded transmission forwarded from the Resistance. Rey played the message and the holo whirred into existence with a low whine.

"Hux," rumbled Ben, taking in the cruel face shaded in blue.

* * *

 

"I say brute force is underrated," said Hux, circling Oona Ren. She lay tilted back, strapped into an interrogation chair. Hux had her gagged. Her constant supplications for dark blessings had been mystic nonsense grating on his nerves. He'd nearly snapped and ordered her immediate execution.

Oona's dark eyes tracked him around the chamber. The bright white of her eyes stained red from the duress of her captivity stood in stark contrast to her midnight skin that was not quite blue or black. Unmasked she was inky night channelled into a living being. She was what Hux imagined when he thought of 'mighty' dark Force users. Darkness personified. Not a whiny, unstable Kylo Ren.

Hux may not have Kylo's Force ability to extract information from his prisoners, but he did have a reliably effective IT-4 interrogation droid. "Don't you agree, IT-43O?"

"Yes, Master," the round black droid answered in a monotone. "Brute force requested. Activating bone fragmentation armament." A pair of thick duristeel clamps ejected from an opened panel in the droid's domed surface.

To her credit, Oona Ren remained motionless — expressionless. He'd seen greater men defecate themselves at the suggestive red flash of the droid's sensor.

"Abort," Hux instructed the droid with a dismissive wave of his hand. The droid responded in a descending beep and the clamps retracted with a violent snap.

"Joint crippling armament?" the droid queried. Another panel opened and the whir of a serrated circular saw buzzed. IT-43O flew closer to Oona and upon receiving no response from Hux, intoned, "Confirmation required."

With his back turned to Oona Ren, Hux rolled his eyes. These droids had no flair for the dramatic, no sense of timing.  He sighed. "No, the electroshock."

"Affirmative." The whir of the mechanized arm departing the interior of the droid sounded. Hux didn't turn around. He didn't need to. The Knight of Ren inhaled sharply as the nerve probe made contact with skin. The interrogation chair rattled as she shook from the pain.

"I'll ask you again. Where is Kylo Ren?" Hux asked and executed a crisp pivot on the heel of his boot so he could examine his prisoner's face when she answered. "Stop, IT-43O. Let our guest speak."

Her eyes flashed purple and her eyelashes lowered. Her chest heaved, restricted by the restraints. Oona Ren did not answer. Hux raised his copper eyebrows.

"Ah, it'll be like that, shall it?" In two strides he stood inches in front of her. "I know you've been trained to endure the pain of torture, but no one can train to endure nerve pain. Not even Kylo Ren's dark lackeys," he whispered.

Hux expected her to lunge at him and fight her restraints to try to harm him. Oh how he wished she would. If she pushed just a hair too far, the chair's failsafe shocking mechanism would trigger and send another delightful jolt of white-hot energy through her body.

There was an art to this method of interrogation. Brute force could be necessary. Kylo Ren exploited his power to muscle his way into a person's mind and manhandle their memories — forcing them to give up knowledge. What victory was there in that?

When Hux conducted an interrogation, it was with the refined skill of one who knew how to pace the shocks, allow for foolish moments of hope just so it could be dashed away. It was a dance to pry the information to be delivered by the defeated captive.

"Proximity alert," IT-430 blared.

Hux jerked to the door just as it crashed open, swinging back to hit the wall hard enough to leave a dent. He suppressed panic and maintained his cool exterior.

"Your inferior methods are slow," boomed Yomin Carr.  The grotesque man filled the doorway and looked around the room like an angered Zillo Beast.

"We have only just begun," said Hux, gesturing to IT-43O. He circled around to the side of the interrogation chair, a little further away from the Yuuzhan Vong warrior.

Yomin Carr didn't just have the serpentine red weapon of a creature curled around his arm — his other arm had sickly green and yellow creature coiled on the bicep.

"We will use the spineray," growled Yomin, holding out his left hand for the putrid looking creature. The well-trained creature slithered down to his palm.

"I beg your pardon," Hux said, very much _not_ begging this barbarian's pardon. "But there is a procedure to such interrogations. Standards that I must uphold as the leader of the First Order."

Yomin stalked to Hux and invaded his space. The massive Vong's mutilated musculature was covered in savage tattoos.  He glowered at Hux through a lowered, split eyelid. His bared teeth revealed the tear extended from lip to cheek. "You will use the superior spineray and not your blasphemous piece of junk."

Hux was well practiced at keeping a glare off of his face and this seemed like a moment to pull on that skill. Yomin Carr's intentional disfigurement evoked the same dark anxiety as Snoke's grotesque visage. The display of the Yuuzhan Vong's deadliness with the death troopers hadn't just been a show for the troopers, but the whole of the First Order. It was a calculated play at intimidation.

Hux gestured towards Oona Ren, who watched the exchange with growing alarm, evident only in the way her eyes rounded. "I will not tell you where he is," she spat. "I don't even know. You followed him to Mustafar and he escaped. How has he had time to tell me his plans while you've held me prisoner?"

Yomin Carr's face lit with manic delight at the reaction provoked from Oona. "You're proving yourself a worthy adversary. Your disguise was resourceful and I admire your perseverance. Perhaps you will recognize the glorious pain of the spineray's abilities as an honor. It does not have to kill you." He swung his monstrous face to regard Hux. "Do you believe this infidel?"

"Why don't we find out if she's telling the truth? We'll use your spineray and send a little message to our fallen Supreme Leader. He's gone soft. With the proper motivation, he would come to us."

"Time to earn your warrior's death, Oona Ren." A deep, grating chuckle tore out of Yomin Carr's twisted mouth.

* * *

 

"We can't stay here. Not a moment longer. You saw what they were doing to her, Ben. I can't sit around wasting time while she's suffering like that," Rey said, pacing the Falcon. _The whole Falcon._

Ben trailed her as she exited one of the gun wells. She'd been ranting and planning out loud since they'd turned off the holo message from Hux. The new Supreme Leader had been smug with Oona strapped down behind him and a hulking humanoid creature hovering just off to the side. The creature had glared into the holocam with baleful eyes, underscored by sacs of flesh and scars slashing the face. He couldn't tell if it looked skeletal… like it was missing skin? Or whatever skin it did have was discolored.

"Ben!" Rey scolded, jerking him out of his musings. "Have you been listening to a word I've said?"

He squinted at her. Apparently, it was his turn to start contributing to the conversation.  "I have. You've been saying some variation of 'let's go' for the past fifteen minutes."

"And?" Rey tilted her head and raised one eyebrow. She picked up a roll of engine tape out of an open toolbox in the lounge and spun it up in the air.

"And what's your plan? Just waltz in, grab her and run straight back out, no problem?" He shook his head and snatched the tape mid-air. Ben put it back in the toolbox along with a thermal wrench and tight-beam emitter sitting out beside it. "That's not going to work. That holo was bait. He wants us to deliver ourselves straight into his hands."

"We can contact the Resistance for help and — "

"No," said Ben. He glanced around the messy lounge, looking for any other stray tools. "I might have a way we can get onto the Finalizer undetected." He studied Rey with his eyes narrowed. "Are you familiar with Radar Analysis Support Systems? A hydrospanner?"

Rey scoffed. "Of course, I am. I grew up in the bones of ships your First Order imitates. What about you, flyboy?"

A rascal's smile spread across Ben's lips. "Sweetheart, I know my way around a pulse repetition frequency."


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait for this chapter! It was a little bit of a struggle to write for some reason and I was short on time to actually write. Life things - two kids and a full-time job - means I can't always write as much as I want, but I am making an effort to post at least every 1-2 weeks. Thanks for sticking with me!

**Chapter Fifteen**

Ben tucked his long dark hair under the blond wig and Rey stared in amazement. How he could fit the entirety of his shaggy hair underneath was beyond her. The outfit completely changed his look. No longer was he tall dark and menacing—but tall, blond and goofy.

It would definitely be hard for her to take him seriously in the nearly too short gray jumpsuit. Ben hunched as if trying to be shorter so the legs didn't creep up any further. A couple of inches of hairy ankle showed anyway.

He glared at Rey from behind metal framed glasses. "What?" he shot at her. "I said we would need disguises."

Rey stifled a smile as he pulled on a bright orange utility vest. The bubble of laughter she contained went a long way to sooth the swell of nerves in her stomach. "Wow. I didn't think you owned any clothing that wasn't black."

Ben threw an identical gray jumpsuit and vest at her with a little more force than necessary. "This is the plan, scavenger," he said, voice gruff and matter-of-fact. His ears, exposed without his long hair, turned pink. "I already told you we're going to be arriving as First Order Radar Technicians. This is what they wear."

"Do I have to wear a wig as well?" Rey pointed to where the blond wig perched precariously atop his head.

"No, but you'll have to do something different with your hair. No buns."

"No buns?" she echoed, running a hand over the three neat bundles of hair at the back of her head. Neither time she was amongst the First Order had she been required to disguise who she was. And now her picture was broadcast regularly as a Wanted Criminal by the First Order on any holochannel they could subjugate. This wasn't an escape — they were deliberately boarding a vessel full of people who would want to kill them.

Ben nodded and fiddled with his vest, opening pockets to inspect their contents, shoving a few small tools in empty ones. He continued his examination, completely oblivious to Rey's look of disbelief. Maybe it was because being on a First Order ship, surrounded by enemy soldiers was normal to him. Not that they'd been his enemies before. They were now though, whether he wanted to believe it or not.

Did he imagine that Hux was the only one who was disloyal to him? Hard to have a mutiny of one.

For another matter, Rey couldn't imagine how just changing her hairstyle would make her unrecognizable. If her face had been shown to the whole galaxy on a regular basis, there was no doubt the stormtroopers saw her face in their propaganda multiple times a day. Ben, too, for that matter.

The sandstorm in her stomach intensified. She shifted on her feet for a few moments before pulling the bands that secured her hair until the buns released and her hair tumbled in waves on her shoulders. Rey ran her fingers through it to pull out the tangles. The ritualistic act of brushing her hair, the tug on her scalp, helped calm the jittery feeling that made her want to bounce on her feet.

"You'll have to — uh —" Ben circled his hand at the back of his head. "You know. Just one tail in the back." At Rey's raised eyebrows, he added, "It's against First Order Code of Conduct not to be properly groomed and attired."

"So it's completely fine for you to have bed-head and short pants but I've got to follow the rules?" said Rey, rolling her eyes, but pulling her hair up into the requested single tail.

Ben looked away. "It's part of my disguise. I've used it before. I have a sense of continuity to keep up."

"Mmhmm," Rey murmured. _Why would Ben already have a disguise to use for infiltrating the First Order?_ Rey frowned and was about to ask him exactly that but he interrupted before the words could escape her mouth.

"Don't forget this," said Ben. He held out a small, lumpy, black blob.

Rey's face wrinkled in disgust — forehead and nose. "What is that?"

Ben's mouth quirked into a full smile. With teeth. The sandstorm swirling inside her grew fiercer for an entirely different reason. She lost count of how many smiles she'd seen at this point, but they still struck her dumb at times.

"It's a mole." He quirked an eyebrow at her and turned his head slightly. Rey couldn't help but laugh, the sound coming out high-pitched, maybe a little frantic. A false mole was going to be the only thing keeping her from being recognized?

Ben's grin faded at her nervous laugh. "With that on your face, no one will be able to look anywhere else. Sometimes the simplest disguises are the best," he reassured her.

"I just — I don't see how this is supposed to keep anyone from knowing who I am."

Ben raised an eyebrow at her. "I think you're forgetting something."

"What's that?"

"You're a Jedi, Rey. The disguise is only part of the plan. Think of it as an aid — something to keep people from _immediately_ recognizing you. Then, if necessary, you use the Force."

Rey's eyebrows flew up. "I am not Force choking anyone."

Ben rolled his eyes to the ceiling and shook his head. "Did I say that? Honestly, Rey. Didn't you just say I wasn't evil? My default is not Force choking," he said, then looked away before adding quietly, "Anymore." He fussed with the pockets of his vest for another moment before looking back at her. "Maybe we should have spent more time training on Dagobah," he said. "Then we could have practiced using the Force for mind tricks."

"I know how to do that," said Rey, fingers rubbing over the rough fabric of the technician's jumpsuit. "How do you think I escaped the interrogation room on Starkiller base?" She shot him a smile that may have been a little smug.

"Ah, you do?" he returned with a smirk.

A gale force wind blew through her, his words an echo of something he'd said to her what felt like a lifetime ago when they could only speak through their Force connections. She took two quick steps to him, put her hands on his shoulders and pushed up to press a kiss to his cheek. Rey hadn't been able to contain the rush of affection he provoked in her.

Ben looked a little stunned and his ears grew redder. _Good, he shouldn't be able to be so calm right now._

Rey took her jumpsuit and vest into the pilot's sleeping cabin without a word. When she came back out in her Radar Technician uniform, Ben motioned for her to come with him to the cockpit. They settled into their seats — he in the pilot's, she in the copilot's.

—

"Dropping from hyperspace in three...two...one," said Ben, watching the ship's navicomputer. The lights of hyperspace faded fast and they were left suspended in the dark void of space.

They had jumped well away from the First Order fleet's location, not wanting to immediately set off alarms at their sudden drop amongst the other ships. Plus, for his cover story, they shouldn't have been far enough away to warrant traveling at lightspeed. When he looked back over at Rey, she was gripping the sides of her seat with white knuckles.

"Surely you're not nervous. This is hardly the first time you've been on a First Order ship." The words had slipped out before he could catch them, reinforcing the belief that silence was preferable to putting one's foot in one's mouth.     

Rey glowered at him but didn't release her hold on the cushion. The tips of her fingers were starting to go purple. "The first time, you kidnapped me." Her expression softened, barely. "The second time, I was going to you… I wasn't afraid."

Something in him lurched, turned over and sank heavily — rooting him to the chair for eternity. Ben stared at her, realizing for the first time that this might not be something they both walked away from alive.

And that scared him. He had something to live for now — something to lose.

He wanted to reach out and grab her hand and tell her that he would be _with_ her this time and that she didn't have to worry, but he choked. Ben swallowed a knot of anxiety and yanked his gaze back to space looming ahead of them. This was supposed to be easier. He told her. He told her he had feelings for her. So why was it hard to continue to do so?

When he was able to speak, his voice came out rough and unrecognizable. Much softer than normal — he almost wished she wouldn't hear him. "If you don't want to do this, now's the last time to speak up. Just say the words and you can leave."

She heard him anyway. Rey was a Jedi with Force sense. If he wasn't careful, she'd be able to hear the unspoken words as well.

Rey frowned at him and took her hands off the seat to cross her arms. Part of him was relieved he didn't have to see her torturing her hands any longer. "Stop being an idiot. I'm going with you whether it terrifies me or not."

That ball of anxiety unwound and he relaxed. She could call him an idiot as much as she wanted, as long as she came with him. The longer he was with her, the less he wanted to do this alone. He hadn't wanted to do anything alone again after they touched hands in the hut. But life, war, political divides… they'd gotten in the way.

Ben swallowed again, but this time forced out the words he really wanted to say. "We're going to be together this time. No secrets between us. No ulterior motives. Our motives are plain. You're everything to me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

When Rey smiled, she glowed fiercer than a set of twin suns. He could feel the warmth and affection radiating off her in the Force and he basked in it like a sun-starved houseplant.

"You can't promise that," she said, even though her smile filled him with a pride that said otherwise. "You're a good man, Ben Solo." She kissed him softly, short and sweet. Her breath came out with a slight tremor against his jaw and he shivered involuntarily.  "Let's do it."

—

They came to the invisible line in space that would put them on the First Order's radar way too fast for Rey's sense of peace. The Falcon was far enough away that the First Order fleet appeared to be toy-sized.

An alert flashed on the communications display along with a loud beeping notification, causing Rey to jump upright in her seat. Ben looked at her askance, while flipping a few levers to slow the engines.  

"Has it always done that?" Rey asked, taking a deep breath to try to calm her frenzied heartbeat.

"When it's working. Transmit our identification code," said Ben as they approached the Finalizer. The dark ship loomed so large it filled the entire view out of the cockpit. Rey input the codes Ben recited to her. "Finalizer Maintenance Station, this is _Ebon Hawk_. Please acknowledge."

The transceiver on the console crackled and an annoyed voice filled the cockpit. " _Ebon Hawk_ , this is Finalizer Maintenance Station. You are not due back for two weeks. Someone should have told us you were coming."

Rey's eyes widened and she whipped her head around to Ben. "What?" she mouthed.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Finalizer Maintenance Station, we have finished our assignment and are reporting back to base as required in the Radar Technician Manual, chapter thirty-two, section thirteen point one point two — "

"Matt," the voice hissed out of the speaker. "Land your craft and report to my office now."

"That's what I was trying to do, sir," retorted Ben. Rey didn't think she'd ever heard the word "sir" spoken with so much venom.

"Now!"

Ben shook his head after he shut off the comm and steered the Falcon to one of the maintenance level hangars. Rey thanked the Force that they'd taken extra precautions to persuade Ved to remained powered down and plugged in during this part of their mission.

"Was it wise to agitate the man when we're supposed to be _sneaking_ on board?" asked Rey, her hands tight on the control yoke in front of her.

"It's the persona," Ben said with a nod. "Just try not to say anything and once we get past Supervisor Norris, it'll get easier."

They stepped out of the Falcon to the glaring, red face of a portly man who was looking at their ship in abject horror.

"What is this?" he asked, flinging a hand at the carbon scarred exterior of the Falcon. "Where is your officially issued YF-200 transport? You can't just leave a First Order ship out in the galaxy and come back in an ancient piece of garbage. What is this, Matt? Some kind of sick joke?" Before Ben could open his mouth to respond, Supervisor Norris continued, "Do you know what happens to techs that make off with or destroy First Order property? Do you? Have you heard of Kylo Ren, Matt? He deals with them. And he has a _lightsaber_."

Ben's eyes flashed. "I thought Kylo Ren was a wanted enemy of the First Order."

Supervisor Norris opened and closed his mouth. Much like the huge, whiskery fish Master Luke caught and hauled over his shoulder on Ach-To. " _Like Kylo Ren would have time to discuss disputes with a maintenance supervisor,"_ Ben said to Rey through their connection, tone brushed with amusement.

Rey stayed silent. This might be business-as-usual for Ben to be standing in a hangar full of stormtroopers and First Order mechanics, but she felt like a skittermouse trapped in a nest of ripper-raptors. Her eyes went to every exit, even the vast opening to space, calculating escape in case things went sideways.

Norris regained his composure, or at least his ability to speak. "Then perhaps you'll share his jail cell one day," spat Norris, and Ben raised his eyebrows. "Generate your report and deliver it to me immediately. Then you will be suspended, without pay,  until the matter of the whereabouts of your ship is resolved."

Rey snuck a glance at Ben when he stayed silent. He _had_ done this before. Enough times to make an enemy of his supervisor.

"And who is this?" asked Norris, leveling his hand at Rey. She took a tiny side-step so she was standing half-hidden behind Ben.

Ben raised his hand in a dismissive wave but what he said was infused with the command of the Force. "She is my apprentice. You assigned her to me months ago."

"Oh right, she's your apprentice. I assigned her to you months ago," Norris echoed in a detached tone. The life came back into the supervisor's eyes and he glared at Rey. "You will do better next time to make sure your trainer is abiding by First Order processes. Accountability!" he barked.

Rey jumped at the supervisor's yell and hoped it could be interpreted as the response of a properly cowed subordinate.

Ben pushed on Supervisor Norris's mind once more, instructing him to forget about the ship and to let them go. Norris relented immediately. For all his bluster, he was remarkably easy to manipulate. Rey reasoned this could be the only reason why Ben would choose to deliberately annoy the man, knowing he could get away with it.

After they were dismissed, Ben and Rey strode across the wide hangar to the doors that would take them into the depths of the Finalizer. Rey stuck close to Ben and tried not to meet anyone in the eye—or visor. Stormtroopers were everywhere—marching to and fro like busy worker ants. Hot ozone stung her nose at the constant belch of laser welding tools and engines firing for take-off.

When they were finally through the doors and into the quiet, antiseptically cold hallway, Rey inhaled deep. The frigid air cleansed her lungs and calmed her nerves. The hallway was surprisingly empty for being so close to the active hangar. Rey swung her gaze down the other end of the hallway, but it was empty as well.

A light above them flashed and a soft, melodic trill sounded through the hallway. Ben looked up at the speaker inset in the ceiling and frowned.

"What is that?" Rey asked, checking both ends of the hall again for company. She shut her mouth quickly when the doors to the hangar swooshed open and several of the techs came streaming out.

Supervisor Norris followed close behind them and glowered at Ben, nearly bumping into Ben as he stormed out of the hangar. "What are you doing loafing about in the hallway, Matt? Report. My desk. Now," he commanded, poking Ben in the chest with his forefinger.

Ben looked down at the sweaty man's finger digging into his chest.

" _Don't_ ," Rey said through their connection. There were so many people in the hallway now, a mass exodus going down the left-hand side of the hall.

After shooting her a quelling look, Ben said to Norris, "Where is everyone going?"

"General Hux is holding an assembly on the main deck," Norris said brusquely. "You'll have to finish your report before you can attend." Then Norris stalked off with the rest of the techs.

Rey stared after him. "An assembly? For what?"

Ben grasped her hand in his and squeezed. "That doesn't matter right now. Guards at the jailblock are going to be operating at minimum capacity. We had perfect timing getting here now. Now we just have to find Oona. She's probably in the interrogation cellblock."

Rey squeezed his hand back and shot him a look. "I believe I know where that is."

"We're actually not that far away. We should be able to get there in just a few minutes. Try to look busy — but not too busy."

"Right. Busy, but not too busy," Rey repeated wryly. "I think I know how to avoid detection, thank you very much."

"Right, that's why the First Order located you so quickly while you were out on your own. Because you're so great at avoiding detection."

Rey gave him a flat look, her lips going straight and unamused. Why he would bring up something that would make her upset or angry at a time like this, she had no idea.

"Let's just go, shall we?" she said, not giving in to the urge to fight with him.

He nodded and started off down the right side of the hallway—in the opposite direction of everyone who'd left the hangar. Even though he was in his rather silly looking Radar Technician uniform, Ben stalked down the hall like he wore his cape and mask. Predatory and filling the space beyond his physical presence.

" _I doubt Matt the Radar Technician would be walking around like he owned the place,"_ Rey said through their connection.

Ben looked over his shoulder at her, but slowed his pace to walk next to her—like coworkers just on their way to the next job.

The stormtroopers they passed on guard in the hallways averted their gazes from Ben and Rey as they passed, a cloud drifting over their awareness. Rey let the walls of her mind drop, deciding now was exactly the time to make sure she was completely available to communicate by those means. It wasn't safe for them to discuss every alteration to their plan out loud.

Plus she wanted to know if it was a conscious effort Ben made to distract them from noticing the oddity of the pair making their way to a level of guarded prisoners. He didn't appear to be making any outward efforts to influence as he had with Supervisor Norris.

Rey reached out gently to his mind. He startled at her touch but dropped his walls as well. She couldn't tell it by looking at him, but Ben was focused on every trooper they passed, intent on redirecting their gaze and thoughts. _How had he learned to do that?_

" _You don't have to wave_ ," Ben said as they rounded a corner. " _That's just to help focus the Force to do what you need. I don't want to be that obvious right now — there are too many cameras in the corridors._ " He slowed as they approached the end of the hall, where the doors led to the jail block.

Ben flicked forefinger and middle finger at two cameras stationed over the two armed stormtroopers standing guard and the red recording lights flickered off. Then he raised his right hand and curved his hand to the side in a cupping gesture. Both troopers collapsed where they stood.

Ben looked down at Rey. "They won't stay asleep long. We'll have to hurry to get in and out. My codes should get us past the access points, but there are cameras and more guards inside."

"We're going to stick out like a sore thumb in these," said Rey, hooking her thumb in her orange vest. "Or do Radar Techs frequent prisoners often?"

Ben pursed his lips but was unable to completely suppress the smile from spreading. He gestured to the fallen stormtroopers.

"No," Rey said, looking down at the unconscious troopers. "It'll take forever to get that gear off of them." Scenarios played through her mind that ended with them half-dressed, caught by a corps of troopers. The last thing she wanted was to be taken prisoner in a state of undress.

Ben was remarkably efficient in manhandling the sleeping troopers out of their armor  Rey didn't even want to begin to consider the implications of that proficiency. He left them leaning up against the wall in their First Order issued skivvies.

Then Ben wrapped his hand around her bicep and pulled her into an alcove. "We can change here," he said. But she was still reeling from the close contact and the fear that they were going to be caught at any moment. He, apparently, didn't share her concerns and turned his back to her, getting to work immediately to shed his gray jumpsuit.

Rey's eyes widened at his bare, broad back. The muscles shifted across his back as he bent to pull the jumpsuit off of his legs. It was lined with scars. Some white with age — a few still red or pink. She almost wondered who would have done that to him, but she knew the answer. It could have only been Snoke.

He glanced over his shoulder at her and frowned. "You're not changing," he said.

She whirled around, hoping that he hadn't noticed her gawking at his back.  Rey began attacking the clips of her vest and shoved it down her shoulders. Rey shimmied out of the jumpsuit and then held up the black stormtrooper bodysuit. If her experience on the trooper transport taught her anything, it was that these things could be a little difficult to get into.

Rey glanced up and saw that Ben already had his jumpsuit pulled up to his waist. He'd stopped to check her progress again. Rey clutched the bodysuit to her chest. "Turn around!" she squeaked.

"That hardly seems fair," Ben said, eyeing the suddenly too small bodysuit. "You've seen me shirtless twice now."

"This is not the time!" Rey hissed, pulling it to cover her exposed hips. It only made the fabric pull from the other areas she was trying to conceal. "Look away! Someone could be here any second. Don't you think someone was monitoring those cameras?"

Ben hadn't taken his eyes off of her. "We'll know before they get here."

Rey shoved him with the Force because her hands were far too occupied with preserving her modesty.

"Do you keep forgetting you can use the Force?" he asked with impatience. "We'll sense them before they even get close enough to take us by surprise. We'll have plenty of warning." He swallowed and Rey followed the movement of his Adam's apple up and down his throat, anything to distract her from the fact that he was looking at her. Or trying to.

It was strange, because, honestly, she wanted him to look, even though every bone in her body screamed at her not to be distracted at this particular moment. If they'd had more time on Dagobah after their fight… or a longer jump to the First Order fleet, she might have invited him to look and more. She had a vague idea of how the more would happen and knew there was absolutely no time and place for it in a First Order hallway.

Rey had her breast wraps and underwear on — that was as much or more than some humanoid species made the habit of wearing. They were short on time and her modesty was for another time and place.

So, she met his gaze, and then held the bodysuit away from her chest, twisting it until she had the legs and arms in the right place. Rey lifted her chin towards him. "Aren't you going to finish with yours?" she tried to sound unconcerned about her state of undress. Especially since he stood in front of her in the form-fitting lower half of the body suit, his chest completely exposed. In fact, he'd crossed his arms over said chest and had his fists clenched, causing his forearms to be held in a flex.

Rey's mouth went dry and she missed the first couple attempts to put her foot into the bodysuit. When she finally wrangled the bodysuit up her shoulders and pushed her arms through the sleeves, she looked up to see that Ben had also pulled his suit on the rest of the way.

Ben didn't say anything, but stepped forward and rolled her sleeves up in efficient folds so they didn't hang down over her hands. Rey couldn't remember the last time anyone had helped her get dressed. She supposed it must have been before her parents left her.

They remained wordless as they worked together to fasten all of the plastoid armor pieces over their bodysuits. Soon she was completely armored and slid the trooper's helmet onto her head. It was damp and surrounded her with soured sweat. Ben kicked their discarded radar tech uniforms into the corner of the alcove. The clothes were as hidden as they could be in the starkness of the hallway. At least the low-lighting and black paneled walls made it dark enough that they wouldn't immediately stick out.

Rey was tensed and ready for an alarm to go off as they made their way past the checkpoints to the high-security section of the prison. But no alerts were sounded. Ben made quick work of any troopers they encountered. It was way too easy. From the outside, the prison didn't look any different from the rest of the ship they'd passed through.

"Here," Ben said, stopping in front of a non-descript door with nothing to identify it. No cell number. Nothing.

He waved and the door hissed open. The cameras blinked out of life before they crossed the threshold into the cell.

A woman hung suspended in the interrogation chair at the center of the room, her limbs an elegant collapse of angles and points. She was so still, she couldn't have been breathing. Her dark skin gleamed in the harsh light of the single plasma bulb that lit the cell. The intense scent of sweat and blood lingered in the air.

"Oona," Ben breathed, halting after the doors clicked closed behind them. He wrenched the stormtrooper helmet off his head and let it drop to the floor with a thud.

Oona Ren's eyes opened slowly and only enough that the barest sliver of her violet irises showed beneath her eyelashes. "Kylo Ren," she croaked through cracked lips.

Rey removed her helmet, unable to bear the smell longer than necessary, and scanned the room until she found an abandoned canteen on a small desk in the corner of the room behind the interrogation chair. She stepped quietly so as not to interrupt Ben and Oona, and went to retrieve it. She tilted the metal container and felt the sloshing weight of a half-full canteen. Satisfied with her find, she brought the canteen to Ben.

He uncapped it with a few quick twists and held the mouth up to Oona's lips. "Drink," he said, lifting to pour the water into her dry mouth.

Hanging back, Rey pulled off her helmet and set it on the table.

"What happened, Oona?" asked Ben, after Oona was done drinking from the canteen.

Oona merely looked at him, then closed her eyes and bowed her head. That was permission for Ben to enter her mind. Rey felt his withdrawal from her as he sifted through Oona's recent memories.

"Yuuzhan Vong," Ben said finally in an awed voice. "I thought they were just fairy tale monsters made up to scare kids."

"Did you?" Oona wheezed, trying to pull herself upright in the chair. If it could even be called a chair — Rey had been in one herself and didn't find that there was any way to _sit_ in said chair. It would be more appropriate to call it an upright gurney. She banished the tangent from her mind and focused in on the woman struggling to speak.

"Did you kill Snoke?" Oona asked, her barely opened eyes narrowing into accusatory slits.

Ben deflated next to Rey, and through their open bond, she knew he'd been anticipating and dreading this question.

"Yes," he answered.

"For her?" Oona rasped, cutting her eyes to Rey.

"Yes."

The word tore from Oona's mouth—jagged, raw, and a little unhinged: " _Traitor._ "


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen**

The First Order was unraveling from within. In the wake of Supreme Leader Snoke's death, the expertly wound ball of yarn that made the Order strong had been exposed. Someone found the one thread that could be pulled from the center, barely disturbing the surface integrity. It was slow, but constant and hadn't escaped Captain Peavey's notice.

That was because he had something these young, fanatical First Order officers didn't. Experience. He'd only been a young man himself the first time, naught but a junior officer. His seasoned gaze swept across the monitors in front of him, security footage of the Finalizer flashing across the screens. Peavey had known the moment Kylo Ren stepped aboard with the girl. Peavey had eyes all over the ship.

General Hux may have thought he had the upper hand in that regard, but those in the power always foolishly assumed they did.

Peavey pulled out his comm and input a coded message before returning his eyes to the screens. He watched Kylo Ren's every move. Ren thought he could disguise himself with a blond wig and glasses but his bearing was unmistakable. And his eyes, the same eyes as his mother, pierced through the facade.

He would never forget the first time he saw Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan aboard the Tantive IV and then on the Death Star. The Enemy, they said. Just a girl, strong but afraid. Not for herself, but for her people. It weighed heavy on Peavey's soul, that day. It weighed heavier as he felt his days growing shorter.

Justification could be a convoluted thing. You could warp it and mold it to make it serve your needs, and he'd done exactly that. It was too hard to confront that what he'd been doing might have been wrong. Providing Order and Justice to the galaxy was important and noble work.

He'd been telling himself that lie his whole life. Each transgression was a stepping stone to the greater good. But he knew he was wrong and now was time to make amends. Now it was time to stop General Hux from creating more planet-destroying weapons. It was time to stop treating lives as collateral damage.

There was a light scratch at the door and he turned. "Enter."

Lieutenant Mitaka entered the room followed by a stormtrooper with a single red pauldron, marking him as commander. Peavey didn't wait for them to speak.     

"It's time to execute the plan," said Peavy, looking Mitaka in the eye before turning to regard the visor of Commander FN-3566. "Alert our network and be ready to move at my command."

The commander's modulated voice came from beneath his helmet. "Shouldn't we fight back, sir?"

Peavey shook his head slowly. "If we fight back, we die. And not at the hands of our enemies. This time we can stop it. We _must_ stop it."   

* * *

The small room was dead silent. They all stared at each other in tense disbelief. The restraints holding Oona's wrists jangled lightly as she swayed towards Ben.

Her dark violet eyes were glassy and clouded with the effort to draw her neck upright and meet Ben's gaze. Oona's lips trembled as her jaw clenched, steeling herself against the pain. Pain that burned red hot in the Force around her.

Ben tried to anticipate the words that would come out next. Tried to pluck them from her mind, gently, but her thoughts were shrouded from him except for the undeniable flares of pain. This had been a possibility he'd contemplated. It was one of the reasons he hadn't been eager to call the Knights of Ren back to the First Order from their missions in the first place.

He'd killed Snoke. He killed their leader. He could no longer cast the blame on Rey. Maybe he never should have.

"Traitor," she repeated, her dry lips sticking together as she spoke. "Your actions have let that tyrant usurp power and invite monsters into our galaxy. You lied and killed our master. _Traitor_."

"I am the Master of the Knights of Ren."

Oona sneered. "Who made you master? Who made you what you are? You owed everything to Snoke — and you repaid him with treachery and death?"

"I owed him nothing," Ben snarled, his temper flaring. "I killed my father in service of Snoke and his 'training' and it was for nothing. The sacrifice meant nothing to him and he mocked me for it."

Ben gestured to Rey. "He wanted me to kill her to complete my training. Nothing was ever enough. Don't you see? He was using me. He used you — all of the Knights of Ren. We were nothing but his pawns. Is that what you desire? A life of mindless devotion to a master who doesn't value you?"

Oona shook her head slowly and slumped back against the meager support the torture chair offered. "You don't understand. Snoke held them back. He held Hux back." She let out a low moan. "And now they're all dead! All the Knights are dead and it's your fault. Hux has invited the Yuuzhan Vong into our galaxy. They are abominations, Kylo Ren!"

Ben held the impulse to lash out at her again, because more than anything, he was having a hard time understanding her anger towards him. Or her extreme fear of the Yuuzhan Vong. Oona Ren had been one of the best warriors among the Knights of Ren. She'd never been phased by the physique of another being in battle.

Ben took a deep breath and said, "These are the beings you can't sense in the Force? They had the organic-based ships that chased us off Mustafar? They aren't invulnerable — we were able to evade them."

"You should have chosen your words with more care, _Master_ ," she said, spitting out the title with venom. "You gave them exactly what they wanted in your carelessness." Oona narrowed her eyes at Rey. "You seem to have become very careless since meeting this _girl_."

Rey's indignation was palpable through Ben's connection to her. Constantly being referred to as the "girl" grated her nerves, and the sentiment wasn't any better received by Ben.

He tilted his head at Oona. "We're here to rescue you. Are you going to refuse my aid and leave yourself in their hands?" This tactic turned out to be mildly effective. Oona looked away but swallowed, twisting her wrists in the restraints.

"I'm afraid that doesn't matter. You've already delivered them exactly what they wanted."

Cold fog washed over Ben and he heard, as if at a great distance, Rey saying his name. And there was something else reaching out in black splinters through the Force to him. So familiar and so cold. His chest tightened and he met Oona's eyes, which could only be a mirror of his own. Wide and full of fear.

"Snoke," Oona breathed.

"No—" Ben said at the same time.

Oona's face turned ashen and she shook in her bindings. "It's him. But he's…. He's with _them_."

"I can't sense anything else" said Ben incredulously, searching for more clues in the Force. It had to be lying to him — showing him something duplicitous to test him. "It can't be. He's dead. I killed him. Cut him in two. There's no way —"

Heavy, frigid walls slammed down around him in the Force, immediately cutting him off from his investigation and Rey. Then it was only his heartbeat pounding in his head, echoing in the void of Rey's absence.

* * *

 

Rey tried not to look appalled at Oona Ren's reaction to Ben showing up to save her. She’d imagined Oona would have been at least a little grateful. Especially considering she was still strapped to a First Order torture rig.

In order to distract herself from the unexpected scene playing out in front of her, Rey paced the room, checking for cameras or any other hidden recording devices. She was no expert in that type of technology, but it was something to do. She had a feeling neither Ben nor Oona would appreciate her interjecting herself into their conversation.

That's when she heard it. The unmistakable sound of marching boots down the hall directly towards them. Though she didn't need to Force to alert her, it lit up with the presence of the First Order only moments away.

"Ben," Rey hissed across the room. " _Ben_. Someone is coming!"

He didn't respond. Rey did a double take. Had Oona somehow used the Force on him? Rey felt along the warm strand that connected her to Ben only to find a conjuration of cold durasteel standing between them. The Force had gone quiet around her and all her senses were lost. It was as if a blanket had been thrown over her senses, muting everything.

Her head reeled with dizziness as she regained her physical senses. _What was happening?_ She looked to Ben. Surely, he would know. His eyes were as wide as her own as he jerked himself away from the conversation with Oona. She couldn't feel it anymore, but she saw the awareness of the approaching troopers wash over him as their footsteps marched closer.

Rey reassessed the room, looking for any other way out than the single cell door at the fore of the room. She took a deep breath. She'd survived almost her whole life in the desert without consciously calling upon the power of the Force to aid her. Just because she didn't have it to pull on now, didn't mean the whole situation was hopeless.

She skimmed her hands over the surface of the solid, flat walls — unmarred by anything that would suggest a path for escape. The ceiling wasn't tiled and there was only single, small air-vent inset in the otherwise smooth surface. It was too small for them to squeeze through, even if they could get up there.

"What are we going to do? Ben?" Rey whirled around to face him, panic starting to worm its way under her skin, the trooper's steps striking her nerves like a ticking time-bomb.

He swallowed and looked between Rey and Oona. "Tell me," he demanded, fixing Oona with his gaze. "Tell me something I can use against them. I may have betrayed our master, Oona Ren, but I will not betray you."

Oona blinked at Ben and her expression softened. "They admire a warrior such as yourself above all." Her eyes lingered on the slash down his face. "You have the advantage of visible scars. They glorify pain. _Dark blessings_ , Kylo Ren." She shook her head, a single tear caught, glittering in the corner of her eye.

The door crashed open and was ripped away to be thrown in the hallway. Sparks and exhaust from the door's hydraulics obscured the room

"Ah," said General Armitage Hux, stepping through the smoke with a dramatic swirl of his blood-red cloak. "I do hope you've enjoyed your reunion."

The blue renderings of him via holo did nothing to display how vile he truly was. Seeing him in a full spectrum of color allowed Rey to really take in the haughty set of his mouth and eyebrows. This was a man who sought to enslave a galaxy to his fervor.

Hux turned his attention to her, his lips curling with distaste. "And you must be the _girl_." He lifted his nose higher in the air. "I daresay, you're a scrawny little thing."

Rey's hackles rose and she contemplated demonstrating her strength. The Force connection wasn't needed for Rey to catch Ben's quelling glance.

Ben adjusted his posture and his whole demeanor changed with it. All Rey could see was Kylo Ren.

"General Hux," he said coldly. "I hope you have an explanation for why you've disobeyed my orders and killed the Knights of Ren." He'd been in control of himself for the first half of what he said, but by the time he got to the Knights, his voice was ragged and loud, filling the whole room.

Hux stared at Ben for a moment, his colorless face impassive. Then he laughed — a big dramatic, guffaw that sounded so faked — Rey didn't know what to do but blink. She looked at Ben out of the corner of her eyes and the only change she could detect on his face was his left eyebrow coming down just a hair.

Waving his hands for the troopers standing behind him to follow him in the room, Hux wrapped up his unnatural laughter and stepped closer to Ben.

"I don't think you understand the situation here, Kylo Ren," Hux said. "You are not in a position to be making demands. This is my ship. I am the Supreme Leader and you are the traitor. You shall be tried and punished amidst your peers. I shall take great pleasure in the....justice."

He didn't want justice — he wanted revenge. It was plain as day with that smarmy look twisting his pale face. Rey wanted to reach for her lightsaber and wipe it off of his face, but she found she didn't know if the lightsaber would even activate in this void of the Force surrounding them. Ben felt it too because Rey had a feeling if he'd been able to draw on the Force, Hux would be smashed into a wall gasping for his last breath while the troopers in front of them submitted or were tossed aside like ragdolls.

She might not have approved of those actions a week ago, but now, staring into the face of this ginger-haired menace, maybe that would be okay.

Hux's pale pink lips curled up. "You've been caught, Kylo Ren."

In her periphery, Rey saw Ben clench his hand at his side. She wasn't sure whether it was in frustration or if he was trying to use the Force.

"Nothing to say?" Hux said with a _tsk_. "Lothcat got your tongue, Ren? The galaxy will no longer be subjected to your erratic rule or your family's meddlesome politics. Under my heel, the galaxy will run as smoothly as the First Order, with myself as the only authority."

"But you've made a deal with the devil, haven't you?" Ben said, so softly that Rey almost didn't hear him.

Hux cocked his head. "The Vong? They have proved to be necessary allies. We shall serve each other's interests and part ways. They have their own vengeance to seek."

Ben met Hux's stare. Dark, cold nothingness pooled within Ben's eyes. "You're a fool. More fool than me. You've allied yourself with something beyond your comprehension."

Ben turned his head slowly to look at Rey, and she saw her own face reflected back at her. There was something deep in his eyes that was telling her something. She wasn't quite sure what it was saying, but she felt that he wanted her to trust him.

* * *

Fear flickered like lightning across Rey's face only to be replaced with resolve. Ben's heart thundered, surely loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. This was worse than he could have imagined, but with Rey standing by his side, there was hope.

This wasn't at all what the vision in the tiny hut had shown him. She'd been standing with him, but it'd been so ambiguous. Ben could only imagine she would join him on the dark side. A reality where he would be joined with her to fight against the First Order seemed impossible.

He looked away from her slowly, the meeting of eyes a magnetic pull from which he didn't want to be released.

Manipulating the Force to get them out of the situation wasn't going to work. He'd tried calling it to him, but Hux had the immediate area cut off from the Force somehow. But Hux didn't know that it wasn't just the Vong here. Ben might be a little out of his depths with those beings, but he had the advantage of knowing Snoke…or some vestige of him that was also on the ship. If that thing was allied with the Vong, Hux had absolutely no control over what was going to happen on the Finalizer.

Snoke wouldn't have orchestrated this whole thing only to let Hux live and maintain his position as Supreme Leader of the galaxy. No, he was a rabid cur. A pawn.

Hux almost rolled his eyes, but turned on his heels to the troopers. Ben took that opportunity to brush his fingertips against Rey's quickly before Hux turned back around.

"This is not going to go the way you think," Ben taunted, the words of his Uncle tumbling from his lips.

Hux grinned, like he'd gotten what he was waiting for. "Oh, Kylo Ren, this is not going to end well for you. Troopers, secure our prisoners and bring them to the Bridge Tower."

Two troopers broke off and circled them, cuffing Ben and Rey's hands behind their backs with cold, heavy durasteel. Clamps from the rig Oona was hanging in clanked open as they jerked her out and cuffed her. Her legs wobbled but she rallied and straightened her spine.

She spared a glance at Ben as the troopers led her out of the small interrogation room first. He wasn't sure if she looked angry or scared, and without the Force it was hard for him to figure out. Then her eyes glittered with unshed tears.

He swallowed. He would get Rey and Oona off this ship alive or die trying.

They were led directly to the bridge, the troopers keeping tight formation around them. Ben inspected their armor and weapons for anything out of the ordinary — a device or something that they were using to generate a Force repelling field. Nothing stood out amidst the standard issue white plastoid and black blaster rifles.

His pulse ticked higher as he searched, now a little frantically for anything. He snuck a glance at Rey — she was scanning their surroundings as thoroughly as he was. He couldn't see Oona, but their shared training told him she was doing the same thing. Three of them searching for a weakness. They were bound to find something.

They stopped at the doors leading into the Bridge Tower, and Hux input his security code in the panel on the door. It swooshed open, releasing a gust of frigid air into the hallway. Ben's stomach grew heavy as he heard unfamiliar guttural sounds coming from the Bridge. He may not have been fluent in many alien languages, but he was sure he'd heard most of them. This was completely new.

The hulking beings occupying the Bridge were communicating through intonated grunts and torturous throat-clearings. His eyes darted over to Rey again. She was something of a linguist, despite her desert rat upbringing. She looked just as confused as he felt.

Ben, Rey, and Oona were led to the center of the Bridge in front of the large transduristeel panel outlooking space. Three of the beings, which grew more grotesque the closer they got, stood in a wide, confident stance. It was almost relaxed.

The one in the center spoke first. "Jeedai," he growled. A snake, coiled around his arm began to move at the rumble of his master. At least, it appeared to be a snake. Ben blinked trying to make out the detail. The head of the creature was more sophisticated than that of a snake.

_Jeedai_? Ben's attention snapped away from the snake-creature and back to the beings in front of him. Did they refer to him as Jedi? He frowned. _Rey?_ No, they were focusing on him. Their dark, recessed eyes stared at him relentlessly, bulging blue sacs of flesh anchoring his gaze on them. He hadn't heard anyone pronounce Jedi in such a way since the last time he'd run afoul of the Hutt's… with his father.

"Yadag dakl, ignot!" the one on the left spat at Ben. His face was scarred in deep gouges and was missing one of his ears.

The one in the middle made a silencing gesture to the other.

"I am Yomin Carr, Yuuzhan Vong Warrior," said the Vong in the middle. As he spoke, the creature on his arm continued its slow slither down to his wrist.

"And these," Hux interjected. "Are our traitors, as promised." He held out a hand in a flourish to the three chained Force users.

Yomin Carr cut his eyes to Hux and his brow lowered. He regarded Hux as if he were a gnat, buzzing around his head. "Indeed," he grunted. Yomin Carr turned his attention back to Ben. The black eyes of the Vong bored into him. A touch of the coldness Ben felt earlier came through the being's eyes, but it wasn't with the same strength.

Was this creature a puppet of Snoke's? Was he being paranoid? Was he being so unaccepting of his failure that he sought to blame it on the Master he was sure he killed? Or was this bigger than he could have ever imagined?

It had been a long time since he'd had to rely on his own intuition without the Force behind it. But he'd always been observant, even as a child, maybe even a little too sensitive to those around him. From what Oona told him regarding the Vong's appreciation of warriors and the obvious distaste the Vong had for Hux, he couldn't act cowed in any way. Not that he had planned on it.

He didn't look at Rey, but she must have swayed closer to him for a moment because he caught a faint whiff of her as she moved back away from him. She smelled like heat—  nothing in particular, but it galvanized him.

Ben stared back at Yomin Carr, right into his eyes, not letting himself be distracted by the various mutilations charting his flesh. The raised ropey scars and deep gashes of his skin resembled a grotesque map.

"The Supreme Overlord says you are a great warrior, Kylo Ren. That you have slain many enemies in battle," said Yomin Carr in a deep, voice that sounded like rocks churning in an industrial polisher

Ben schooled his expression. Supreme Overlord sounded too close to Supreme Leader for it to be a coincidence.

"But you have made a fatal mistake in killing one of our own. One of our Supreme Overlord's beloved pets," continued Yomin Carr. His mouth spread in wide grin, revealing narrow, pointed teeth. "Onimi provided much entertainment to the Supreme Overlord."

Ben couldn't help it. His brows drew together in confusion. Despite what the galaxy might think, he remembered every person he'd ever killed — and he didn't recall any being by the name of Onimi.

"Ah, you do not know, do you, infidel? He was known as 'Snoke' in this part of the galaxy. Our people heard he amassed a great power here. You killed him and now we have come to claim it."

"Claim what?" Ben said calmly. "I have nothing to give you any longer." He inclined his head toward Hux, who turned red at the accusation.

Yomin Carr barked a laugh. "That mongrel poses no threat. Nal, show our prisoners our might."

One of the two Vong flanking Yomin Carr broke away and stalked toward Hux. Hux's hands flew up into the air in surrender. "Excuse me," he said. "Our agreement was fulfilled. We already agreed to split powers."

Yomin Carr flashed his jagged grin. "I thought you might be a simpleton, but not that simple. What use do we have for you now, blasphemer? Now that we have our prize?"

Nal jerked his arm out straight to his side as he got closer, and the snake-creature wrapped around his arm jumped into his hand, transforming into a serpentine sword. Rey let out a startled gasp from beside him.

Chuckling, Yomin Carr said, "You are impressed by our fine amphistaff. They are the truest and most sophisticated weapons. They have been bred for war. Nothing like the metal toys your kind use."

Hux's eyes darted around the bridge, trying to catch the attention of any of his subordinates. He caught Captain Peavey, standing at the monitors. The old Captain stared dispassionately back at him then gave a single shake of his head to the troopers' squad leader.

"Attack!" Hux commanded desperately to the stormtroopers still in formation behind him. The troopers' helmets swivelled as they looked at each other, Captain Peavey and their squad leader, then took a step back. The other officers and techs on the command deck kept their eyes glued to the screens in front of them, suddenly very busy.

Ben clenched his fists to his sides. This didn't seem like the time to interfere. There were still so many unknown variables, and Hux was an enemy. But at least he'd been an enemy Ben knew. One he could predict. He knew barely anything about the Vong and at the rate he was learning about them, it would be awhile until he found something he could use to their advantage. Captain Peavey's actions were unexpected but not surprising. Ben had detected the captain's disdain for Hux rolling off of him in waves over his years in the First Order.

Without any ceremony, Nal took the two remaining steps to Hux, who finally realized no one was coming to help him. Hux froze and all the color drained from his skin. "No—" he started to protest.

Nal arched his fist holding the amphistaff through the air faster than lightspeed, becoming a blur. The sharp snick of the weapon meeting flesh echoed in the bridge, followed by a thud that felt like a gut-punch.

Hux's head rolled across the bridge and stopped at Ben's feet. His mouth was still open in plea.

Rey gagged.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry this took so long! I had to drag this chapter out of myself and it took a lot of work from my betas to help me get through it. Thank you so much [appliciousness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appliciousness/pseuds/Appliciousness) and [LtHanz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lthanz/pseuds/Lthanz) for reading over it and talking with me a million times to get it straightened out. Hopefully, it won't be quite as long until the next update. Thank you to anyone who has stuck with me through the long hiatus. :)


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Chapter Seventeen**

 

Rey stared at the severed head of Supreme Leader Armitage Hux, having regained control of herself. Her gagging had caught the attention of Yomin Carr and he studied her, the blue sacs bulging under his eyes agitatedly. 

Ben wanted to crush his eyeballs and destroy any trace of malevolent thought the Vong had for Rey.  

But she didn't need him to do that. 

And he didn't need the Force giving him a peek into her mind to tell him.

Ben watched Rey's throat move as she swallowed and met Yomin Carr's eyes, keeping her expression placid. Yomin Carr huffed a harsh, grating laugh that filled the space, echoing in the otherwise quiet bridge. The usual buzz of conversation between the crew members remained at a standstill.  The other Yuuzhan Vong joined in his terrible laugh and it made Ben's skin crawl. 

Ben wanted to leap into action, call his lightsaber, and start slashing some heads off himself. All three Vong at the head of the bridge posed an immediate threat to their lives, and he had no idea what else was coming. But he couldn't be that reckless. The Force was still blanketed, just beyond his reach. He wouldn't be able to rely on it, he had to come up with a plan. 

Under duress, his instincts tended to be of the Han Solo method of planning.  _ When it doubt, brazen it out.  _ He'd heard those words so often, they were almost second nature. Don't think about the odds. Act first, think later, maybe. You wouldn't have to think about it later if you wound up dead, right? It was almost a win-win. 

Only now Ben had something precious he couldn't bear to lose—someone precious. 

Yomin Carr turned to face the expansive view into space the main bridge viewports displayed in panorama. His laugh had trailed off with a gravely chuckle.

Ben took advantage of the moment. He had to let Rey know he was here for her in some way. That this wasn't something either of them would be facing alone. It was strange that it wasn't so long ago that he wouldn't have ever dreamed of doing something like this, especially not in full view of the First Order leadership—or what remained of it.

He reached the few inches that separated Rey's hand from his and grasped her hand in his. She went rigid for a split second but squeezed back. The fierce beating of adrenaline through his heart slowed infinitesimally. He forced himself to let go of her warm hand.

It was enough for now. Or, at least, it would have to be. 

The dark space in front of them began lighting with what looked like hundreds of tiny comets hurtling into view. Proximity alerts began blaring from the claxons in the bridge, the sound startling and deafening. The previously silent fire control engineers and commanders on deck burst into a flurry of movement, consulting the array of screens in front of them. 

"No," Oona breathed out, barely even a whisper, from behind Ben. But he heard the breathless fear that had caught the word in her throat. 

"Sir, the scans are picking up at least two hundred and fifty of the—ships!" the bridge officer struggled with what to call the aggressively approaching threat. His face was pale and his voice unsteady as he addressed Captain Peavey, who surveyed the now brightly lit space out of the wide viewport with a deep grimace.  

Ben thought to grab Rey's hand and rush out of the bridge in the sudden confusion erupting through the personnel—Oona would know to follow—but Yomin Carr and the two other Vong had him pinned to the spot with their satisfied smirks and narrowed eyes.

When the ones closest to the Finalizer ceased being a blur, it was clearly one of the Vong seed-shaped fighter ships. The same kind that chased them away from Mustafar. This was going from bad to worse more quickly than Ben could have anticipated, and none of it made sense. 

Ben dragged his gaze away from the massive fleet of alien ships and looked back to Peavey whose mouth turned down, face cast in a dark expression. Peavey was distressed, but not surprised. Ben's attention was jerked away from the captain by the rough voice of Yomin Carr. 

"The time has come, Kylo Ren, for you to witness the  _ glory _ of the Yuuzhan Vong," said Yomin Carr, turning back to face them. The satisfaction upon seeing his reinforcements arrive curled his ragged lips into a wide grin. 

"You," Yomin Carr barked at the red-pauldroned stormtrooper commander standing behind Ben, Rey, and Oona. "Take the female warriors to your prisons. Kylo Ren shall remain here."

The commander was still for a moment, as if debating taking orders from an alien outside the hierarchy of the First Order. It was impossible to tell where he was looking from behind the helmet he wore, but Ben caught Captain Peavey's barely perceptible incline of his head to the trooper from behind the Vong. The commander nodded his head once, motioning for his troopers to comply with Yomin Carr's demand. 

"What? No!" Rey cried. She glanced frantically around the room, even though there were no allies there. Captain Peavey remained stony-faced, regarding the threat looming among the stars. Ben stayed still even though his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, any calm he'd managed from the brief touch of Rey's hand earlier had fled. His gut was telling him not to interfere. To let this happen.  

Oona was silent, but cut her eyes around the room. She was weak and knew to conserve her energy for when it mattered. Rey struggled against the troopers that had flanked her and grabbed her arms to haul her out of the bridge. 

"Let go!" she shouted, trying to twist free of their grasp. But there were too many of them now, lifting her feet from the floor, hauling her towards to the doors. 

Taking a deep breath, Ben took a moment to consider. This may have turned out better than he could have hoped. As far as he knew, the only three Yuuzhan Vong aboard the Finalizer were here on the bridge with them. If the troopers took Rey and Oona away, then at least they would be out of the immediate danger of the Vong. 

Ben caught Rey's tearful gaze and shook his head, urging her to go. 

To have faith in him. 

Half his soul left the room with her. 

—

The Finalizer was eerily silent as the troopers marched Rey and Oona back to the holding cells. They were hauled into a room, Rey's eyes widening at the strange crackling devices inside. This was not at all what she'd been expecting—already being very familiar with the First Order interrogation rooms.

This room was sterile and cold save for the two metal cages hissing with currents of electricity, both bolted into the floor in the center. Rey sucked in a breath and looked at Oona, whose eyebrows had stitched together with a panicked look flaring in her eyes. 

"What—what are those?" Rey asked, not really expecting an answer. 

"Force cages," the trooper holding her left arm said. Then they were thrown into the cages, the doors coming down with a loud zap as metal met metal.

"You mean to lock us up like animals?" Rey shouted from within her prison. She reached up to grasp the bars, but the trooper shook his head quickly, taking a step forward. In concern? Rey couldn't quite believe that. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Now that you're inside, the bars will shock you if you touch them." When Rey only stared at him, her eyes going flinty, he added, "It will hurt, badly. It could…paralyze you."

Rey's eyebrows came down in a frown. "Why are you telling me that?"

But the commander didn't respond. He raised two fingers in the air and pointed towards the door, the other troopers taking command and filing out of the room. He looked one last time at Oona and Rey through his helmet, then turned on his heel and left the room after the last trooper had marched out the door.

Rey eyed the buzzing metal bars surrounding her and shivered. The air in the room was sharp and frigid. Oona wouldn't look at her, but she could feel Oona's fury bristling under her skin as she struggled to still. Rey was exhausted, the adrenaline pumping through her system having run its course. She collapsed into the middle of her cage, folding her legs and sitting in the traditional Jedi meditation pose. 

"What are you doing?" Oona growled from her side of the room. 

Swallowing, Rey closed her eyes and attempted to clear her mind. Meditation. Meditation would help her find a way out of this. She promised to help Ben. She wanted to be by his side. Being locked in this cage wouldn't do. She tried to ignore Oona's questions, but they became so persistent her eyes snapped open and she glared at Oona. 

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to think of a way to get us out of here!"

Oona scoffed. "These cages are meant to contain Master Jedi. I doubt you could figure a way out of them."

Rey slitted her eyes at the other woman. "So you propose to sit here and do nothing?"

Oona didn't say anything for a long moment, then sat down facing Rey and mirrored her position. "Snoke had some of these built in our training facilities. He used them as a punishment. They block out the Force and if you touch them long enough, the shock could kill you."

Rey blinked at her. "He—what? How could any of you bear his teaching methods? That's so cruel."

Oona shook her head. "It taught us strength."

"Yeah, well, that's seriously messed up. Punishment shouldn't be a part of training."

"It made Kylo Ren what he is," Oona countered. "He is the strongest dark warrior among us. It gave him the strength to slay our Master." Oona's voice wavered on the last few words, and she looked away. Rey didn't need to Force to give her insight for the conflict Oona was feeling over her master's death.

"You're wrong," Rey said, feeling unexplainable tears welling in her eyes. She hated that she kept crying,  but she had a hard time containing what she felt. She would never make a good Jedi. 

Rey wasn't used to feeling this helpless. Even when she'd been a junk trader on Jakku, she'd had some sense of agency. She'd been able to protect herself. And now, she and Ben had walked into something horrible and she was  _ terrified _ for him and what was happening up on the bridge. She'd promised Ben he wasn't alone, but she couldn't protect him from here. Her stomach felt like it was being ripped apart trying to suppress the thoughts. 

"That strength was his own. He was rejecting Snoke," she finally managed, trying not to sound as choked as she felt. 

"And where do you think he learned that strength? By the grace of our Master's training," replied Oona, turning back to face Rey. Her face softened, only slightly, when she caught the devastation Rey struggled to hide. 

"No. He learned that from his mother and father first."

—

"Am I to be receiving the same treatment as our dearly departed Hux?" Ben demanded, once Rey and Oona were safely out of the bridge.

Yomin Carr laughed that same barbaric laugh that caused a shudder to ripple out amongst the bridge crew. "Oh no, Kylo Ren. We have bigger plans for you. None of the farcical tribunal nonsense your leader was intent upon. The Vong do not glory in long drawn-out bureaucratic formalities. No, this is a warrior's matter and shall be settled in the warrior's way."

"And that is…?" Ben forced himself to say slowly, drawing the words out. The familiar surge of darkness coursed through his veins, itching to fight, to do more than just stand here and bait the Vong with his words.  It was of no use to him now. He needed to try to keep a level head. He couldn't use it to channel his Force powers. Now was the time for another set of skills, taught to him by his fast-talking father. 

"You are quite insolent for such a fragile being," said Yomin Carr, a feral smile stretching his thin, ragged lips. 

"Well, now you have me. Isn't that what you came here for? I murdered one of your brethren and now you're here for revenge?" He needed more information if he was going to find a way out of this situation. 

Yomin Carr's amusement with Ben seemed never-ending. "That is not quite the whole of it. You did murder one of our own, but only one of his puppets. Revenge was invented to soothe the explanations needed by your Supreme Leader," Yomin Carr paused to sneer at Hux's headless body and a chill swept down the back of Ben's neck. "In order for us to gain unfettered access to your bountiful galaxy, we used his vendetta against you to...how do you say? Grease the wheels?"  

Yomin directed his cold eyes at one of the fire control officers who had made the mistake of actually watching the conversation. The officer nodded hurriedly, correctly assuming that the Vong wanted a response. 

It was when Ben followed Yomin's line of sight to the fire control officer that Ben noticed something out of place on the main control switchboards. There was a fleshy, undulating worm-like creature suctioned onto the computers. It pulsed every few seconds, and if he concentrated hard enough, he could feel the Force retreat just out of reach with each movement, even beneath the veil shrouding him from it. 

It wasn't just an immediate area around him that was being blocked from the Force—it was blocking the whole ship. His throat felt thick and he clenched his jaw, thinking fast. If he could find a way to remove it—destroy it—that would give him a huge advantage. Would they know if he removed it? Oona had said that the Yuuzhan Vong were a void in the Force, so maybe they wouldn't be able to feel whether it was working effectively or not without visual confirmation it was where they'd left it.

He struggled with the impulse to leap towards it and test his theories. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike was more important that the immediacy of returning the power to the Force to the bloodthirsty hunger running through him. Ben felt sweat break out on his forehead, on the back of his neck, prickling the fine hairs as it ran down his spine.

Ben caught the movement of Yomin Carr's head back towards him and pulled his attention away from the wriggly creature and back to the massive Vong just a few feet in front of him. 

In his periphery, he could see Captain Peavey lean a fraction towards the control panel in front of him, sliding his arm slowly to switches just out of Ben's line of sight. What was he doing?

"Yes," said Yomin Carr, satisfied with the fire control officer's response. "Supreme Leader Hux greased the wheels for our entry into your galaxy. Did you know that our own planet is dying?"

Ben's attention shifted back to the Vong, but he remained silent. If he knew anything about evil overlord speeches, they existed solely so that said evil overlord could hear himself speak. The same could be said of the many politicians he'd grown up around, each vying for his mother's favor.  

"Of course, you wouldn't. Your kind are ignorant of space beyond your precious little galaxy," Yomin Carr went on. 

Then a bigger ship appeared in front of the viewport, a bigger Vong ship. It wasn't quite as big as the Finalizer, but it completely filled the panoramic expanse of space. Delight rippled across Yomin Carr's scarred face. 

"The Supreme Overlord has arrived," said Yomin Carr. He turned to the other two Yuuzhan Vong on the bridge. He said something to them in low, guttural grunts that had them nodding their heads and marching to the doors, presumably to greet their Supreme Overlord's landing shuttle. 

Yomin Carr turned his attention back to Ben and sent him a spine-chilling smile. "The Supreme Overlord has been most eager to make your acquaintance, Kylo Ren. And then your death sentence will be issued. ZHAELOR! ZHAETOR ZHAE!"

"ZHAELOR! ZHAETOR ZHAE!" came the shouts of the other Vong, just barely out the door. 

The Force remained out of reach, but a coldness had settled around him. 

Ben Solo had a very bad feeling about this.

—

Rey and Oona glared at the junior officer that entered their small prison bearing two plastoid trays of food. They wobbled in his unsteady grip and he paid particular attention to his feet, as if he was so nervous he worried he would trip.

He was carefully looking anywhere but directly at them as he set the trays down on the ground and slid them through the narrow slits at the bottom of their cages. There was a single mound of gelatinous nutritional porridge on each. 

Then, after Rey had acknowledged the tray and looked back up at him, he deliberately met her eyes. There was something there, something Rey wished she had the Force to help her examine. 

It was already odd that an officer had been sent to bring them food. For starters, they had been in their cages for only a short time. Rey thought it couldn't have been more than a standard hour, surely they wouldn't be so hasty to feed their prisoners? And, wouldn't they have just sent a trooper? 

She eyed him as he stood and turned. He didn't say anything to them, but straightened his officer's coat with rough hands, causing a small datapad to fly out of his pocket and land on the floor with a soft thud by Rey's cage. 

He made no move to indicate he'd heard the datapad fall to the floor, and left the room quickly. 

"Did he leave that on purpose?" Oona asked as soon as the doors whooshed shut behind him. 

"It's hard to believe he would have dropped that on accident and not noticed," Rey said, frowning. She looked to the corner of the room where a single security camera was posted. The red indicator light on it flickered then extinguished. Her frown deepened. 

"We could use that to unlock these cages," said Oona, spearing the fallen datapad with her sharp violet eyes. 

It was closer to Rey than it was to Oona, but it was more or less in the middle of the space in front of the two force cages. 

"But if your arm touches the bars trying to reach it, it could paralyze," said Rey, considering the space between the crackling bars. Her arm might fit through it without touching, depending on how far she had to reach. If it was between the two of them to get it, it would probably have to be her. She did have more experience navigating small and treacherous spaces. 

Oona studied Rey. "My arms are longer," she said. 

Their escape was just within reach. It seemed a little too easy. Especially with her lightsaber hanging off a hook with her beacon right by the door. Why hadn't those been confiscated to someone who would be able to examine them? 

"This could be a trap," Rey said. 

"I don't think it is. That man left that datapad on purpose. And the trooper earlier warned us of the dangers of the cages. Why would they do that if their intent was to let us escape only to recapture us?"

Rey thought about it — everything about the whole situation was strange and she felt like she couldn't trust her instincts. She poked at her porridge with one finger, because of course they hadn't been left with any utensils to eat it with, and her stomach let out a little growl.

Her finger touched something hard and solid within the porridge. She pushed through and lifted out a sticky metal key. Her gaze flew to the door of the cage, and sure enough, there was an extremely old-fashioned keyhole beside the small keypad of the door. Probably a failsafe for opening the cage in case the keypad was damaged. 

"Check your porridge," said Rey, showing Oona the key. "He did leave the datapad on purpose, but maybe for something else. Even if we get out of these cages, we've got a long way to go before we're safe."

Oona smashed her hand through her porridge and it went flying. She lifted up her own metal key triumphantly and rushed to the door on her hands and knees. She slotted her arm carefully through the crackling bars, wincing as some of the electricity singed her skin. The key fit into the lock and she turned and the cage door swung loose. 

Rey did the same and they were both climbing up to their feet after crawling cautiously out of their cages. Rey picked up the datapad once she felt steady on her feet, adrenaline pumping back through her veins at the thrill of escape. She started tapping through the menus and her eyes widened, swinging up to meet Oona's. 

"This is completely unsecured," she breathed, tapping faster. "We can contact the Resistance. We can access all of the ship's security cameras. I can see everything."

Excitement made Rey's hands tremble, the datapad becoming wobbly in her unsteady hands. With each security measure bypassed through the interface, the sharp twist of dread in her stomach wound tighter and tighter. This was too easy. It felt wrong.

Oona's expression sharpened. "So what are you waiting for? Let's get out of here."

—

It wasn't as hard as Ben had anticipated to keep silent. Years of holding his tongue in front of Snoke had prepared him well for this trial. 

That wasn't the hard part at all. Yomin Carr had kept his eyes on Ben for the long minutes until the heavy footsteps of the returning Yuuzhan Vong echoed in the hallways beyond the bridge doors. And then, even through the dampening of the Force, cold snapped into the air around them, as if the very light and heat were sucked out of existence. He was plunged into darkness and it was hard to breathe. 

He didn't turn around, couldn't turn around, at the sound of the doors hissing open. He was absolutely frozen in place. 

It couldn't be—he'd killed Snoke—seen him sliced into two, dead, tongue lolling out, on the floor of the throne room. 

But then it came, the malevolent voice of his nightmares. "Young Solo… didn't think you could rid yourself of me so easily, did you?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again to my lovely beta readers: [appliciousness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appliciousness/pseuds/Appliciousness) and [LtHanz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lthanz/pseuds/Lthanz).


End file.
